Go Beyond Oil PSA
- Content strategy
- Graphic design
Introduction
Our addiction to foreign oil has led us down a road of environmental and moral harm. While environmentally-aware campaigns usually use a soft earth-friendly approach, I elected to use extremely powerful moral issues.
Content strategy
I did research to find injustices done in the name of oil that could be portrayed easily and powerfully in a single image and a few sentences. I observed three themes:
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The easy slippage from one aim to another, that could be translated into word changes.
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The ease in which our politicians forge alliances with countries with massive human rights issues to buy their oil.
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Similarly, the ease in which we throw away our moral standing in our thirst for foreign oil.
From its immediate arresting visuals, I chose the word change concept, knowing that I’d have to write powerful copy to get the message across.
Visual design
To communicate the moral deterioration oil has brought upon us, I photocopied each image and headline about 10 times, until degradation was obvious but the visual still legible.
Using the style of the New York School of Modernism (a.k.a. Saul Bass and Paul Rand), I framed each photograph with a claustrophobic area of black, which was analogous to being choked with oil.
