Brief 2: Born Free Design Boards and Evaluation

This brief stemmed away from branding and identity, which has been an underlying theme in much of my work this year. The Born Free Foundation fit the criteria of the chosen charity for the brief as it has a variety of constant campaigns trying to free animals from caged environments, and working on something current and with guidelines gave more of an insight into working post Leeds College of Art.

The consistency in each of the design would make the posters very recognisable in a public setting. Research showed that most people remember numbers over words, which informed the decision to feature the statistics and facts underlying the endangerment of each featured animal. Similarly, the illustrative elements exhibit the deterioration of the species, showing all that remains of them as shapes, which are melting away.

The aim of the stickers is for them to be given out to students, either in the packs that students receive from their student union, or the packs that a lot of student accommodation supply their tenants with. This would prompt students to get involved in the charity, and even if not it would increase their awareness of it as it would become a talking point.

This brief was restricted in it's time boundaries but given the chance, extending the campaign to give it a web presence would have been beneficial in raising awareness of the issues the charity face. On top of this, a campaign which may have been more experiential would put the public in a situation where they would be confronted with the problems and would be more inclined to get involved.

I enjoyed this brief as it was slightly different from the other work I was doing, and allowed me to see further into the future of work as a graphic designer. This kind of brief also gives the work more of a sense of purpose, even though it was not to be going into effect. I feel as though it could have been extended, and more consideration into the context of the promotional materials, where and how they would be situated may have altered some aspects of the design, for example, when printed the colours were slightly duller than on screen. Overall, I think the illustrations combined with the facts and statistics makes for quite a striking impact, and, if I were a first year confronted with the designs, I would be keen to get more involved in the charity.