Graphic design activism was the focus of these series of posters my class did for Digital Illustration; and although I'm sure I'll fail because she said to go easy on text, I couldn't in good conscience bring to light the issues regarding non-reporting of sexual assault, and THEN NOT PROVIDE THOSE RESOURCES. It just stinks of bad decision making that you make a gorgeous design that pleases the eye, pleases your sensibilities, and helps literally nobody.
In 2016, the last reported year, Arkansas State University had a spike of 7 sexual assaults reported, from 2015's 2. Now a common misconception that more numbers means more assaults, but it's actually a good sign of reporting health and the public's self-preservation that reporting numbers stay high in a given population. The number goes down in two situations: all offenders are gone, or reporting drops. And since education in areas in the South is pretty shit, it's almost always attributed to a lack of offenders, rather than a drop in reporting. Simply put, running the numbers, if 7 sexual assaults account for only 5% of our given on-campus population, that means as many as 140 sexual assaults go UNREPORTED. 140 is roughly 10% of our on-campus population... TEN PERCENT. In order to provide better accuracy, education, and protection for us all, reporting has to go up. And in college rape, a study showed that 89% of female undergraduates reported consumption of alcohol, and of those number 87% of them admitting to being intoxicated or drunk. PROTECT YOURSELF. PROTECT YOUR FRIENDS.
Conceptually i made my poster in mostly a single day, then a couple weekends in order to polish the artwork in illustrator, and conform my typography to "university" standards. Although putting the football team's logo rather than the university's was a CONSCIOUS decision; the Red Wolves logo is a bid to engender camaraderie with students, and help pull us together as a "pack". The stAte logo just doesn't instill the same message, so I went ahead with the Red Wolf. The phone off the hook and drab colors really make the message across the top scream out to viewers, and I hope that even a couple people see it so that we can help somebody in need.
Initially researching and brainstorming this work was very stressful; I may have ended up collecting PAGES of statistics that made it pretty clear that college sexual assault is pretty much a norm of Dorm Life, not the exception. If 10% of roughly 2,800 students is sexually assaulted, and there are ten rooms on a floor, then it's almost guaranteed statistically that at least one or two classmates on a floor have been a victim. Please, look out for yourself, your classmates, and anybody at our campus.
