Fair Trade Project
Hello Friends! I am alive and well….
As some of you know I was a bit overwhelmed last week. It was just one of those mid-semester meltdowns. Big thanks to those who offered some kind words to help me pull through. Whenever you’re feeling down, friends are the cure for sure!
There is one particular project that has been taking up most of my time these days and that’s what I’ll be sharing with you today.
In addition to my regular class schedule, I am also involved in an independent study with two of my good friends and fellow design students. Last semester we worked together on a climate commitment project, and the ‘global issues’ theme continues this semester with a fair trade project.
I have had the pleasure to work with my two group members, Reyna and Leslie, for the past year. We are good friends outside of class and a seriously awesome design team when we get together. This December we all will be graduating together and also sharing a space for our BFA show.
Currently we are working on an awareness/movie poster for a university client. I wanted to share a little about what we are working on because I thought people would be interested in the process that accompanies designing for a client dealing with global issues, a project that requires a lot of research and information design.
Thankfully this fair trade project required about half of the research that our climate commitment project did last semester.
Anyway, the client came to us with the need for a movie poster for the film Black Gold, which would be playing at a local theater. As we brainstormed with the client, we agreed that the poster had to include much more than just the movie information. We decide to create a kind of brochure-type piece that would fold out into a poster. This way we could make more of an “awareness” piece that would be a preview of the film.
First comes lots and lots of research! …and pizza delivery. We watched the movie (several times), selected words that best describe the trade situation, created swipe boards, Internet searches, and lots of discussions and note taking. This was over the course of several meetings but here are some pics from one busy night.
Once we developed a solid concept we began sketching and creating graphics and the second round of the process began. As we continued developing and making changes the three spreads really began to come together as a series of graphics.
Throughout this entire designing process we meet with our instructor who reviews our progress and offers suggestions. We have made a number of changes and It’s been quite the process. It’s cool to see how far we have come. I’m really happy with the work we have produced so far and I’m hoping that it only gets better from here.
So here is where our project stands at the moment.
Cover:
Middle Spread:
Poster:
We recently met with the client to present our work and we will be meeting with them again soon to discuss what they would like to change. The feedback we receive when presenting the piece was all very good and I’m excited to get the project all finalized.
Reyna (chaparrita01) also submitted our work to the Do Good Fight Bad design competition. Which is a pretty cool opportunity to get some work out into the world. Unfortunately, we are still in the editing process of the design so it is not completely finalized. Hopefully we can later submit the final printed piece.
Black Gold is definitely a film I would recommend to others. It has a powerful message about the buying and selling of coffee and the relationship, or lack there of, between the buyers and farmers of coffee beans. Check out the films web site blackgoldmovie.com to learn more.
I’ll keep you updated on the project as we continue with it, but mean while let me know what you guys think. About our approach, concept, design, or anything else. I know the girls and I would love to hear what you all think.
Peace for now.