Have you met Sandy? Sandy is our little mascot Wapuu.
What is a Wapuu you ask? Wapuu are the great characters that represent the many WordCamps, WordPress Meetup and Communities around the world. The idea is each Wapuu is designed to represent the local area or community, meaning there are hundreds’ if not thousands of unique Wapuu that represent the world.
If you want to learn more about the History of Wapuu you can head over to wapu.us.
Brainstorming
We started brainstorming ideas about 12 months ago to find what would make our Wapuu fun, unique and local, something that said ‘Port Macquarie’ and ‘Relaxing’.
Here are some of the ideas we first came up with:
- Port Macquarie Pine and/or Palm Trees
- Koala Park / Kangaroo / big cat
- Peppermint Park
- Fantasy Glades
- Baz Luhrmann – Grew up in Port Area – Wapuu as a movie/character
- Beach Towel
- Beach Wear
- Beach Ball
- Sandcastle
- Painted Break wall Rocks
- Lighthouse
- Strawberry Farm/Tomatoes
- Whale Watching
- Dolphins
- Camels
- Skate park
In the end Mel our designer felt the Port Macquarie Lighthouse stood out as one of the main landmarks and images of Port Macquarie. Who hasn’t visited the lighthouse while in Port to see the beautiful sunsets or watch the sea life swim by.
We also decided to add some fun and relaxation into the design to really make sure the Wapuu was enjoying themselves in Port Macquarie, this was done by making the Lighthouse into a sandcastle, a fun way to explore and pass time on one of our many amazing beaches.
Designing
To design our Wapuu, Mel found some reference photos, vectors and inspiration and got creating.
Once the references were ready, Mel got designing and vectoring our Wapuu. This process took about 8 Hours+ as we really wanted our Wapuu to be special.
We know you don’t have 8 hours, so we have speed up the process and made a nice time-lapse so you can watch the magic happen in under 5 minutes.
Enjoy the video.
Sandy – Our Creation
With a bit of love and vector design we had our unique Wapuu, which we decided to name Sandy. Sandy is a happy Wapuu having a fun day making sandcastles of their favourite lighthouse on the beach. Don’t worry, Sandy has put sunscreen on already.
There are still tickets available for our very first WordCamp and we would love for you to come! WordCamp Port Macquarie is October 5-6 and you can get your tickets now!
You can also see all the other amazing Wapuus’ from around the world on the Wapuu Field Guide & Trading Post, wapu.us.