During my 2nd year on my Graphics Design, Illustration & Digital Media course, we were given the task to create a Social Awareness Campaign for a charity of our choice. I had chosen to base my campaign work on the NSPCC. Throughout the project, I had researched into the charity in great depth and carried out my own primary research to help aid my campaign project and the final artwork. I had experimented, sketched and created many great concepts, but I had refined it down to my best 2 concepts for the final artwork.
The concept and message behind these campaign posters work really well to reflect physical child abuse. The idea is simple photography and hand rendered text, however the content in which these simple processes work together makes it effective. From my research I gathered how abused children may physically torture a doll to take out anger or recreate their abuse experiences on a doll. So I felt a doll would be a very ideal object to use, a childhood image and object. However the childhood and fantasy element of a doll is lost through its abuse, similar to how abused children lose their childhood to abuse. The doll itself represents a child. A doll has a blank expression and cannot speak as it is an inanimate object. This reflects how abused children often do not speak out the truth and keep their abuse quite as it continues to inflict more pain upon them. Abused children are also treated as they were an inanimate object, being hit and tossed around as an object. I have burnt the dolls in certain areas of the body such as head, arms and legs, most where injuries are likely to be inflicted. These are visible parts of the body. The burning process worked really well as the colour of the doll itself turned into like a “bruise” like effect, scars and colour changing of the skin. I also feel the shiny spots on the surface of the doll helps to create a shiny and brand new, fresh and innocent feel which contrasts to the burnt bruises surrounding it. I used a plain white background to contrast between the white purity and innocence against the dark violence.
From my research I gathered how abused children may write down their abuse experiences through forms of diary, poems or stories. In each poster I have focused on an abused body part of the doll. This helps to focus on a part of the doll, and create a series of poster through showing different body parts per poster instead of an all body shot, which limits developing. I used crayons to write the text as it also Is a childhood object of fun. However the written message once again opposes the fun. The crayon also allowed going loose with the writing, as the blunt surface of the crayon takes away the control and sharpness of the marks, so it looks more of a childlike writing. Each poster has text explaining an abuse situation which the child has written, this message also relates back to the image on the poster. For example, “my daddy tells people I accidently dropped the hot water on my hand……”. This is supported by a close up shot of a burnt and scalded arm. This idea also refers back to my researched findings into real life child abuse cases, and how abusive parents use excuses to cover up their abusive acts by making up false scenarios. But the sentence is not finished as it ends in “……………” This creates more of a mystery as the sentence is not ended, the viewer interacts more with the poster as they draw up their own conclusion to the statement, which would be negative after they witnessed the horrific image. The posters all have the same doll and same handwriting, this reflects one child’s story of continuous abuse.
Overall I feel this idea works really well as it is simple but really effective. The content is limited so it does not create an overcrowded chaotic look. Each poster clearly sends a direct negative message and both image and text support each other very well.
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