Robots aren’t typically known for their empathy but my one is special; Colibri the forest guardian not only cares for his own woodland world – he’s planting trees in real life too.

Inspired by my love of video games (The legend of Zelda, Warcraft, Diablo, Tales of Monkey Island), I came up with the story of Colibri when 2 of my friends asked me to illustrate a collection of greeting cards for their new project 1 Tree Cards. Each card comes with the planting of 1 tree and a seed token which grows into flowers to feed bees. I knew this unique project needed a special character with a message of hope.

The story of Colibri begins with a human engineer who saw the destruction humans were inflicting on the planet and feared the collapse of civilization. Not wanting nature and animals to reach the same fate, this engineer created little Colibri to care for the natural world. With his special empathy algorithm, Colibri can learn emotions such as joy, trust and sympathy. Throughout the collection, Colibri celebrates and cares for his friends and the forest they inhabit.

When I show this collection to people, they ask “When is the book coming out??” I would love to turn Colibri into a book or animation someday, I think he is the perfect symbol for compassion :)

Why Colibri? Meaning hummingbird in French, I was inspired by ‘The Story of the Hummingbird’ told by the late nobel peace prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai. During a huge forest fire, all the animals stand back feeling helpless while 1 tiny hummingbird is attempting to put it out one drop at a time with their tiny beak. When the other animals start teasing and saying their beak is too small and that it’s a lots cause, the hummingbird turns to them and says “I am doing the best I can”. This perfectly sums up the message of Colibri and 1 Tree cards – it is not too late for us to heal the world if we all do the best we can.

All 12 designs are available now on Kickstarter as signed prints and greeting cards with 1 tree planted with every card and a seed token to help feed bees.

We created 3 other fun collections that always share the main guideline of the project: nature, love and equality. Check them out!

More info: kickstarter.com

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