Final Project: Verbal Bullying

1.     Design Principles:

·      The first design principle in this billboard is continuation with the words: stupid, ugly, and worthless. Ugly and worthless appear to be zooming toward captain America, while stupid appears to be deflected off his shield.

·      The second design principle is the typography, more specifically the text. I used a text similar to what would appear on an army tank or other war materials. I chose this to match the Captain America theme.

·      The third principle of design is the color. I made the bullying words in the color red to evoke anger, passion, and hostility. Many times when words such as these are used it is to evoke emotion in someone else. I wanted the viewer to feel the emotions associated with those words, and with the red color, it is easier to portray that.

2.     What I’m trying to achieve:

·      With this piece my target audience was young boys between the ages of 6-17. Most bullies in public schools and other situations believe that bullying can make them tough and cool. This poster was made to prove that belief wrong. Captain America is a role model for many children. So if he is standing up against bullying, children will realize the “cool” thing to do is to stand up against it too. This poster is a call to action to put a stop to verbal bullying. The child will see this billboard and want to follow in Captain America’s footsteps and “take a stand against verbal bullying.”

              

1.     Design Principles:

·      The first principle I wanted to utilize was leading. Separating the first line, body, and last line of the text allows the reader to see the message of the billboard more clearly. It separates “Verbal abuse is still abuse” from the insults.

·      The second principle used is the color of specific words. Again I wanted to make the reader feel as if they are being attacked, and the most effective way I found to do that was to make certain words red. Only the insulting words are red, those are the ones that the reader will read first. This is so people driving by don’t have to read the full text to understand the message.

·      The last principle is repetition. Using the word abuse at the beginning and the end creates cohesiveness, and allows the message to really stick with the reader.

2.     What I’m trying to achieve:

·      The target audience for this billboard is adults who have, or work with, children. When the reader finishes reading the body text, my goal was to make them feel horrible about themselves. Doing this allows the reader to place himself or herself in the receiving end of verbal abuse. My hopes are that after reading this when someone goes to say things such as these listed, they will remember how they felt reading the billboard and stop themselves. The take home message is that even though verbal abuse isn’t physical, it still hurts.

1.     Design Principles:

·      The first principle of design I used was kerning. In each sentence I placed the word “abuse” a little father away from the previous and following word to really make the word stand out.

·      The second principle of design is repetition. Using the word abuse three times, once in each sentence, breeds cohesiveness and allows the message to really stick with the reader.

·      The third principle of design is color. Again I used the color red to evoke the feeling of pain from the reader. Red is the same color as blood, so associating red with pain is something we do subconsciously. I used this to my advantage with this design.

2.     What I’m trying to achieve:

·      The target audience for this billboard is adults who have, or work with, children. I chose this particular picture because I wanted the child to be looking at the text to draw more attention to the message. The little girl has a sad look on her face, as if the words bring her pain. When adults talk of abuse, most of the time we assume it is physical abuse. In our culture we tend to overlook verbal abuse because it doesn’t bring physical harm. However, the mental effects of verbal abuse last much longer than physical abuse wounds. So for this billboard I placed the little girl in the atmosphere of physical abuse and suggested that the reason she was wounded was because of verbal abuse. This billboard was created to raise awareness about the dangers and pain that comes from verbal abuse.