Advocacy Poster - E-Waste
For Exercise 2 in GD2 this semester we were told about the Massive Change book where designers try to tackle environmental issues. I decided to take on the issue of E-Waste (short for electronic waste. obviously named during the “e before words means technology” phase). After doing a lot of research, I was a bit appalled to learn that 80% of e-waste goes unrecycled in the US. Over 500 million computers have been dumped (due to being obsolete or malfunctioning in some way) from 1997 to 2007 in America alone. Even worse, there is little to no government legislation requiring any sort of e-waste take back program like there is in Europe. Above that, even though there is legislation blocking e-waste from being sent to China, it still is anyway. When it reaches China, small villages thrive on breaking down these computers and cell phones. They strip metals and other valuable materials from the e-waste and then burn the rest. Without proper equipment, these people are exposed to massive amounts of lead, cadmium, mercury and other elements that cause skin conditions, birth defects and cancer… all for $1.50 a day. These people are being poisoned by the worlds need for technology. (Learn more here: http://www.ban.org/ )
Recently the push towards green energy and technology has started to change this situation though. That is the good news. Companies like Apple have completely revamped their product lines to be very recyclable and without many of the deadly elements including PVCs and more. (Details here) They have also reduced the size of packaging in addition to taking back any computer (Apple or otherwise) at their stores, as well as offer 10% off of new iPod purchases when you bring your old one in (see store for details). In addition to Apple, major PC makers like Dell and Lenovo have started offering take back programs as well. Sadly though, other companies like Nintendo and Sony have not made a big push to develop environmentally friendly devices yet. What truly would make a difference is if the products we were to buy were designed for recycling. Something that is already in the works from major companies, but still years off from becoming standard. So for now, the real issue is informing people that throwing away media, hard drives, computers, CRT monitors, TVs, video games systems and more is not an option. The message needs to be spread “Do not buy what the manufacturer will not take back to recycle” that as a mindset can help change the future of electronic technology.
I decided to make my poster advocating that statement. I designed it with several key things in mind. First the size of the poster itself is 2.5 feet wide by 6 feet tall. I wanted it to stand out and be imposing in size. If you were to multiply the poster’s height 113 times you would have 678 feet. That is the size of one acre square of e-waste that the United States put out in 2002. Remember, 80% of that was not recycled. 678 feet tall is more than twice the size of the Statue of Liberty and 73 feet higher than the Seattle Space Needle all in about 90% the size of a football field. A daunting size.
In addition to the size of the poster, every element within it is a vector graphic that is life size to the actual product. I want people to see a huge poster of technology that they themselves might have towering over them to know it is only 1/113 the size of the actual amount of e-waste we produce annually. When I was designing the poster I decided to use a fresh and current look that tech-savy people would recognize, as well as people who are less technically knowledgeable would take notice of. This way I could draw them in from a distance to get the message at multiple levels. Personally I feel a poster should be able to send the message at a distance 70% and the remaining 30% is what you give them once they are drawn in to read it.
This is an overall image:
Below are close ups on the poster in more detail:
It should be up in the Art Building in the next week or so on display with others that my classmates have made for the real test of it’s message.
GD 2: Book Cover – Progress Is…
I have been a little busy with stuff lately. Between classes and work I seem to have my hands full this semester. I haven’t forgotten about updating entirely though. I just have been planning a website to act as an online portfolio in parallel to this one. Unfortunately someone has been squatting on the domain name that I want (obviously jamesoncampbell.com) for the last 5 years. As it stands I have to make an offer for it for over 200 dollars… not my idea of money well spent at the current moment. So I’ll cook up another idea for now.
A project that I have finished recently though, was one for Graphic Design 2. This semester is structured a bit differently than the other classes that I have been in. To quote Ken Visocky-O’Grady “It doesn’t get any harder. It just gets faster” and so far he has been right on the money. The class is comprised of small two week exercises that we are given in parallel to the larger projects that last six weeks. Our first exercise, was to design a book cover about another person in our class that was picked at random.
I was paired up with Rachel Purton. We did the interviewing process to learn a bit more about each other and then got to work. I decided to focus on the “big picture” aspect of talking with her. She grew up in the country and is on her way to working in a big city (preferably Charlotte, NC she told me). Since her story of progress obviously isn’t complete, I decided to make it a biography about her and the work she accomplished in the future so that it was “complete”. The icons I made represent major steps towards her goal of living in a major city. But then there is always the “what’s next?” question. So the icon that says “the future” is what ties the title of the book “Progress is…” to the concept. I thought the book’s mostly square shape reminded me of old projects that we did during our foundation years and felt the stark black and white went well with it.
Here are some screencaps (I’ll have photos later):
overall view:
close up of icons:
We’ve already begun working on Exercise 2 and are just past half way on Project 1. I’ll be posting those soon. Check back.
