Entry Five: Post-Review

I felt the faculty reviews went well and were really helpful. I went through my presentation—I am creating a multi-media campaign for Cincinnati Public School high school students so that they are made aware of the bystander effect and learn intervention tips—and they felt like it was a really worthwhile topic. They questioned my audience, and said this had the potential to start even younger than high school students, perhaps making my design more preventative than curative. Then, they offered the idea that since my messaging and content already exists, I could create a single phrase or visual cue/identity that can translate across different age groups. I felt like they narrowed down my format/applications and opened up my audience. They told me to really focus on creating a captivating, memorable identity and forget about my other application proposals (website, print collateral, social media presence).

I thought the idea of creating an identity that can translate across age groups or “grow up” with its audience was really interesting and would be a good challenge. How do you create language or an identity that will be readily understood across different generations? Or, how do you create an adaptable identity system? When I think about similar projects I think about series of small books about growing up or puberty etc. that are meant to mature along with its audiences, but I can’t think of visual systems or identities that do this, so I think my next step is to do more research and benchmarking on this. One of the reviewers also suggested a documentary called “The Interrupters” that relates to my concept but in the area of gang violence, so I’d like to look into that as well.