The Invisible Children

Event & Issue: The nonprofit organization that I picked is The Invisible Children organization. The organization stemmed out of three filmmakers who went to Uganda in 2003 to shoot a movie and discovered that Ugandan children were being lured into the army as child soldiers. The event that correlates with this organization is the movie screening that The Invisible Children organization shows all across the U.S. Its main purpose is to educate audience and teach them how they can do their part in helping Uganda’s displaced.

Visual Message: I knew firsthand that I wanted my message to be simple but strong. I parlayed a shock factor into the poster through the two contrasting colors, alternating san serif texts and the dominating image of the poster; I knew that I wanted my poster to be ominous and dark.

Audience: I think my target group for this poster would be the people that are socially aware of what’s going on in Uganda and its neighboring countries. This poster is targeted towards young adults and college students who wish to make a difference in their community. I imagine this poster would be placed in magazines such as GOOD or The Rolling Stones – publications that reaches out to the mass media beyond more than just news and pictures.

Design strategy: I was very lucky to find a dominating high-resolution image that conveyed the message I wanted to tell. The image of the little boy holding empty bullet shells speaks volume of the culture gap that is present in Uganda and the U.S. However, I inserted the “ring around the rosy” poem to remind to the audience of the loss of youth Uganda children are currently experiencing because they are being lured into the war. I used red because I wanted it to resemble blood and symbolize the horror and atrocities these children have already gone/ and is going through. The main message I wanted to tell was that these kids are losing their youth at such a young age because of the war; they no longer can experience the naiveté and freedom every child should be granted. Another aspect of the text that I incorporated was the poem itself. Though a nursery rhyme, the origin of the rhyme came from the deaths that resulted from the bubonic plague. I wanted to associate the ideas of death, loss of youth and children all into my poster.

Style Sheet:

Display Type: Cracked, 70/84, optical kerning, tracking none

Event Title: Skia, 20/24, optical kerning, tracking none

Event Date & Time: Skia, 45/ 54, optical kerning, tracking none

Event website: Skia, 15/18, optical kerning, tracking none

Extras: I chose two very simple colors to convey a strong message. The use of red in my poster was to resemble blood and destruction. It complements the darker background that comes with my image. I only used white in one part of my poster because I wanted to show the contrasting details on the poster. The white text was inserted to inform my poster’s audience what the event is and what they are supporting by attending.

I originally had the phrase “We all fall down” above the hand holding the bullets. I liked the placement of it, but after many versions, I realized that the phrase would be more effective if I placed by itself, below the hand. This enabled me to keep my poster simple and clean, while still putting out an adamant message of destruction.