The Michigan Department of Natural Resources took advantage of Valentine's day to bring attention to the plentiful natural and cultural resources that Michigan has to offer. This was accomplished by creating a series of punny Valentine's Day cards that were made available to share on social media, text, or via a print-and-share option for an in-person or postal exchange.  News of the cards went out to over 75,000 email subscribers, and video and image Facebook posts reached almost 119,000 people, with over 6,600 engagements, including almost 500 shares. Over 13,000 additional impressions were gained on Twitter. 

An initial brainstorm by members of the Wildlife Division's Public Outreach and Engagement Unit generated a number of species and punny sayings that could be used with them to create a funny card that highlighted a variety of critters in Michigan's woods and waters. Additional feedback was received from outside of the group to highlight some of the other cultural and natural resources of the non-animal variety. 

Finally, utilizing internal department photos, photos licensed through Adobe Stock, and one vector image (pine trees) licensed through Adobe Stock, Eric Hilliard created the Valentine's Day cards in Illustrator for iPad using the photos as a guide to create the illustrations. Eric also created the scrolling cards video in AfterEffects to help promote them on social media channels. 

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