Malaysia loses a football-pitch-sized area of forest every 90 seconds, making us 8th in the world for deforestation. Yet most Malaysians are unaware of the state of deforestation in Malaysia. Malaysian Nature Society, the nation’s oldest conservation NGO, wanted to bring this issue to light in a way that would engage our audience towards action. We also looked to reach Malaysians of all ages, regardless of race or socio-economic status and recruit them to our cause.

We built our reimagined “unfortunate tales” by hand in 3D using mixed media. Whenever possible, we used reclaimed wood, metal, cloth and other repurposed items, in keeping with our theme. These sets were then photographed and turned into the cover of our notebooks, which were made using sustainable FSC recycled paper.

Each notebook starts with a story set in a treeless world. Upon turning the page, readers discover that the tale has ended abruptly thanks to deforestation. The rest of the pages were left blank, allowing readers to reuse the notebook. This ensured that they had a constant reminder that our story too could have an abrupt ending if we don’t stop deforestation.

The notebooks were made available for sale offline at our roadshow as well as online on our microsite, with proceeds going towards MNS’ conservation efforts.