The legend says that at the beginning of time, when humans began to populate the earth, there was neither sun nor moon, and they found themselves immersed in great darkness, frightened by numerous creatures such as dragons, witches, flying horses, genies, and so on. Eventually, in their desperation, they decided to ask Amalur for help. In response to their insistence, Amalur said: “My children, you ask for help, and I shall offer it. I will create a luminous being whom you will call ‘ilargi’.” Thus, Amalur created the moon, which, with its pale glow, lit up the night. At first, the humans did not dare to venture outside, but upon seeing that the evil genies fled from the light of ‘ilargi’, they went out to celebrate. It happened that the genies’ fear did not last forever, and gradually, they grew accustomed to its light and soon returned from their lairs to harass the humans. The humans went back to Amalur, asking for something more powerful. “Amalur, we are very grateful for the gift of Mother Moon, but we need something stronger, as the genies will not stop pursuing us.” “Okay,” said Amalur, “I will create a being even more luminous, whom you will call ‘eguzki’.” And Amalur created the Sun. In this way, the sun would illuminate the day, and the moon the night. It was so large, bright, and hot that even the humans had to gradually get used to it. Thanks to its heat and light, plants grew, and, more importantly, the genies and witches could not adapt to the intense daylight, and from that time on, they could only venture out at night. However, the humans went once more to Amalur to ask for protection during the night, as the genies continued to come out at night to harass them. And so, Amalur created a flower so beautiful that, upon seeing it, the creatures of the night would believe it was the sun itself and flee in terror. This flower is “eguzkilore” (sunflower). And to this day, it is the symbol of protection that defends homes from evil spirits, witches, disease genies, storms, lightning, and other enemies of humankind.

( Euskera )                                                    ( English )

Amalur / Ama-Lurra                                 Mother Earth
Ilargi / Ilazki                                                Moon
Eguzki / Ekhi                                               Sun
Lore / Lora                                                   Flower


( About the process )

Once I had designed the layout for the typography ➀ and text, I moved on to adding the botanical illustration of the flower in colour. As I looked at the poster, I realised that the sense of light I had initially felt from the layout had almost completely disappeared. The concept behind the poster was to capture the light emanating from the “eguzkilore”. As I thought about this, a ray of light suddenly entered through the train window during my journey to Barcelona, reflecting on my laptop screen. At that moment, I found exactly what I was looking for. I applied a light beige tone to the vectorized illustration and added an external glow to get that same effect, as if the leaves, the roots and the flower were a ray of light reflecting on the poster. So there it was—the light from the “eguzkilore” finally shone through.

➀ Editorial New, by Pangram Pangram


( References i-viii )

Benary, E.E. ( 1876 ) Album Benary Vol I. Druck von G.A. Koenig.
Abrams, N.H. ( 1989 ) Nature illustrated: flowers, plants, and trees, 1550-1900. New York: New York Public Library.
Gros, J.-B. ( ed. ) ( 1847 ) Portefeuille des horticulteurs. Paris, France: J.-B. Gros.
Blunt, W. (1950) The art of botanical illustration. London, United Kingdom: Collins.
Museums Victoria (1870) Economic botany fruit and vegetable specimen register. Melbourne, Victoria: Industrial and Technological Museum.
Rattray, J. (1835) A botanical chart, or, Concise introduction to the Linnaean system of botany. Glasgow, Scotland: Blackie & Son.
Thunberg, C.P. (1813) Periculum medicum de utilitate plantarum quarundam Svecicarum. Sweden: Upsaliae. Bentham, G. and Mueller, F. (1863) Flora australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory. London, United Kingdom: L. Reeve.