The Koala character was a new design in 2019, after a request from a birthday boy who loved koala’s. Since designing the character, drawing it using digital software, it has became a very popular birthday card. At Christmas, the design was slightly altered and it became a koala in the snow for a Christmas card!

The Design

The News

Since creating the lovable koala character, there has been a devastating occurrence that greatly impacted their habitat in Australia with a series of out of control bushfires. As of 14 January 2020, fires this season have burned an estimated 18.6 million hectares, an estimated one billion animals have also been killed and some endangered species may be driven to extinction (source wikipedia.org).

Not Just a Drawing

I was about to launch the new Valentine design and a new fine art print but felt the timing was insensitive after reading about the suffering of the Koala’s so I immediately decided to do ‘something’. I joined up and donated to the ‘Koala Protector’ scheme on WWF (https://support.wwf.org.uk/koala-protector).

I will also be donating further to an Australian local charity Wildlife Victoria, I have chosen this charity as the money will go directly to help the wildlife in the area affected by the Victorian bushfires (including koalas) by the use of their many volunteers who are working to ensure that as many native animals as possible receive the ongoing care, shelter and food they need. The donation will happen by the means of the proceeds of any Koala product purchased direct on this website. With the launch of the new Valentine’s collection and soon to be uploaded the new print collection there are now a few products to choose from.

All net profits of our Koala character products will be donated to charity.

Since writing this post @NSWRFS has tweeted that the current rainfall has helped, so let’s hope this continues and helps towards the containment of the wild fire.

Liza Cole,

Founder and Designer, Liza J design

January 2020