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My campaign is aimed at re-establishing the intimate connections people once had with one another through writing. Email, texting, phone calls, instant messengers and other gadgets are far too acceptable these days as a form of communication and drain all emotion and sincerity from people's thoughts. Taking the time to write a letter shows dedication, compassion, love, craft, and wit (there is no spell check with ink).

The following are a few reasons why writing > email and other such techno-communication.
You can't re-read a phone call.
You only have check your mailbox once a day.
Your grandma probably does not have email and can't see the buttons on her phone to text.
When you get money in an envelope it always feels like more than if it was "wired to your account".
Real mail usually calls you Mr.
Writing a letter is a good way to keep from working yet when you finish you feel like you've done something.
There are no hyperlinks in snail mail.
Postal glue tastes great.

I am creating a set of posters to promote tangible, tactile, communication. Here are the ideas so far. The copy is still being tweaked and I am adding some more vintage postal elements to them to relate them to my other piece which is a letter writing kit. (pictures soon to follow). The kit consists of elegant hand-made paper (not by me), a nice pen, and a set of vintage airmail-styled envelopes (hand made by me). The posters are being made using an acrylic transfer technique where I mirror the images, print them on the shittiest paper possible, paste them face-down onto nice printmaking paper, soak the whole poster and rub away the cheap paper to leave the image transplanted onto the nicer stuff. The technique adds a texture to the image that plain ink on paper can not achieve.

If anyone has any ideas for the fine-print copy on any of these feel free to comment or whatnot.

It's Not Ok

My project is center around child abuse and how to teach 7-8 year old how to recognize abuse and what to do about it. The 3 things that I will include in my project are posters, a baseball card with the what by law is consider abuse, a comic book and some pins. My problem that I'm dealing with right now is what color to use for the dots in the background.

A Healthy Dose of Truth on Cigarette Chemicals

For my campaign I chose the subjects of cigarettes, honing in on social smoking and targeting college students, particularly those first starting school and prone to experiment and trying new things to fit in. My general theme was to have a positive angle compared to existing, dramatized, negative advertisements and commercials.

Initially, I wanted to explore the cost of cigarettes and what you'd gain by quitting, or just not starting in the first place, especially since these are college students and don't have a lot of money to begin with (why they would spend it on something that harms themselves.)

This proved to be not as successful because my target audience didn't spend as much as I thought in a given time since they only smoked on occasion. The facts didn't allow me to create a message with as much impact as I would have liked.

So now I am playing around with the theme of all the chemicals produced by one cigarette. No matter how much one spends, everyone is absorbing a lot of deadly toxins. I want to keep a more positive spin to be more original, but haven't quite reached it.

To get the message across, I was thinking:
Posters
Stickers
Mock cigarette box with logo/design theme on outside and have ways to quit/advantages of not smoking rolled up to resemble the individual cigarettes

Right now the designs for the posters have an illustrative look with a few colors. I have other "design routes", but this is most recent.

Exploration of a few different variations of posters. I'm enjoying the application of textures for situational purposes, in addition it gives the 2d plane more dimension. Nothing is set it stone, but this is the direction I'm heading. Each white image is outlined with a dashed-border...This is not very apparent, but treatments are being done to make it an integral part of each poster design. The idea of the arm is to have a set of keys hanging at the superior of the composition.

Grab Your Band

I am doing a website based campaign about places local bands can play shows. It is going to have an insider's view each venue, including things like how easy they are to work with, a general rating of the experience, how long did you have to wait to get a show there, etc.

I've done more than is up right now; I can't seem to get it to upload correctly. But to get a feel of what I'm doing, visit:

www.grabyourband.com

This is a partial example of one of the venue pages. "Map" and "Pics" will have little pop-up windows, one with a map, and the other with pictures sent to me by people who have played there.

Esitst Responsibly

For those who don't know, exist responsibly is a campaign aimed to motivate college students and the community to vote.
The first piece is a possible poster solution, I'm not completely sold on the idea yet, so feedback would be helpful. The second is a card series that would targeting three different (current) social/economic issues. These will eventually be more specifically designed (the text) to be placed in different environments where people are faced with real world situations that are affected by these issues. For example, the Gas card could be found in a gas station. I wanted to keep the design "hopeful" and positive, while still invoking some discontent about the way things are going. Again, these are not quite resolved yet so feedback is appreciated.

Start with Art

The purpose of the Start with Art campaign is to educate parents about how art is beneficial to the developing child as well as parent-child interaction. It focuses on ages 4-12, the stages where art has the most impact on a child’s brain. The informational booklet includes art projects for the parent and child to engage with together. There are sets of art cards with activities appropriate for the age levels. All of the projects can be made with simple materials that are safe, environmentally friendly and low cost. The booklet also has information about what art does for the developing child in terms of cognitive development and the importance of parent-child quality time.

The book design will appeal to both parent and child. It has hand drawn imagery that isn’t realistic but rather playful and easy to read. Information is organized in folders and divided into sections for ease of use. All information will fit into one organized package. Instructions are clear and concise, with step-by-step instructions, a listing of materials and age appropriateness. The back of the book includes a CD with additional art projects and posters to print out for children to color.

The stamps serve as a way to donate money to programs in public schools that foster education through art. All proceeds from the stamps will go to art education in public schools. Public schools can buy art supplies, invite artists to teach and have an artist in residence program.