In 2010 I felt the need to better present the pro-life campaign. At that point in time, without much thought or understanding, it was the obvious “side” I was on.
w/ Troy Hollinger
I remember the exact day, December 2, it was a Thursday. I just came back to my desk from lunch. Then, just as it is now, my desk is in my garage converted design studio. I was surfing the web a bit before starting in on whatever design project I was on and somehow ended up at prolife.com.
My first thoughts were something like, “This could not be the official representation of “such an important issue?”” I remember asking myself, “Is this The Prolife?” How could you expect anyone to take this serious? I thought for sure this campaign must be headquartered at a different domain address.
So I visited prolife.org, and found basically the same lack — but a different style, so there was not even continuity. From there I was hoping to find better results on Google, I could not. ☹ This is a bad thing in my profession; Design.
I love seeing athletes wear pink. Pink cleats, pink wristbands, pink jerseys, etc. I love powerful visuals, especially teamed with causal agendas.
Powerful presentations. I was shocked to see such a lacking campaign for the abortion cause. Seeing this collective need answered a personal need of my own.
A few weeks prior to this, I saw the movie Social Network. It’s the story of Mark Zuckerberg and how he started Facebook. I left the theater very discouraged. Most of my friends had an opposite feeling, one of being super inspired, but I felt the weight of the question “What am I doing with my life?” and I didn’t like the answers that surfaced.
I mean, I was happily married (still am), father to two beautiful daughters (now 3, and a son) and owned a couple small companies — but this still wasn’t satisfactory to me. I carried the weight of that question for weeks, still kinda do. Upon seeing the state of pro-life’s branding, I felt that helping this world cause could be a filler to my emptiness.
Since I was a young kid, there was a sense within me of some meaning (professional) that was to come, that up to that point, I had yet to set my hand to. I knew instantly this project was the path to me finding the meaning I was looking for.
Aha moment number one was the realization that making abortion illegal was not actually solving the issue, or necessarily making anything better. If the abortion cause was to be made more effective, this could not be the main goal, objective or message.
Aha moment number two, there are many needed solutions, from many needed different people group participants, that the current campaigns (pro-life and pro-choice) do not facilitate. We need a campaign that can facilitate a larger variety of user types.
Aha moment number three was seeing the idea of turning the A of Abortion on its side, clockwise, making it an abstract greater than symbol. This creates a beautiful empty space, in front of the word Abortion, that poses a compelling question; What is better, or How can I do better? Starting a campaign around a question, and not the purveyance of answers, is the sort of enablement the abortion cause needs. Freedom of use is vital.
Aha moment number four. Defining the word abortion in three stages is a major fix to the disconnect between people when using the multi-meaning word abortion. These stages can enable collective progression in a groundbreaking way.
Stage 1 Abortion:
Aborting Conceived Eggs
intercourse + 3/5dys to about 2wks
Stage 2 Abortion:
Aborting a Human Pulse
2wks gestation to about 3/6wks
Stage 3 Abortion:
Aborting a Human Looking Small Thing
6wks+
Aha moment number five. We are asking the wrong question. It is very hard to get the right answer with the wrong question. We are currently dealing with the abortion topic — whether in the projected future or real-time — using the question “what to do with unwanted pregnancies?” The yield of answers to this is typically a mess. We need a yes or no question, perhaps something like: “Can we keep from getting pregnant when it’s unintended?” this will yield empowerment.
