SLO Food Bank
Including:
Advertising Campaign
Art Direction
Typography
Food Photography
Typography
Client:
SLO Food Bank
Designers:
Allison McClain
Photographers:
Overview —
The Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo works with a network of community partners to alleviate hunger in San Luis Obispo County and to build a healthier community. They believe every human being has the right to nutritious food, regardless of the reasons that they may not be able to obtain it for themselves.
Our goal was to create a novel, eye-catching message to raise awareness in the community for SLO Food Bank
My Role —
- Co-Art Director
- Compositor
- Layout Design
As the compositor, I was responsible for editing the photographs and adding effects. After receiving the hand-illustrated type from my partner, I arranged them to suit each composition and helped write and develop the rest of the copy.
Challenges —
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Using the minimum viable amount of information in order to drive user action.
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To encourage users to donate money rather than volunteer their time.
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To create a campaign that can be expanded upon and uninhibited by time.
Needed to instill a sense of curiosity
Development —
Our team of designers brainstormed various ideas that would raise awareness about food insecurity and the mission of SLO Food Bank. We quickly decided against using stats since this would be a long term campaign. We researched and talked with our clients to better understand their passion and dedication to the food bank. They needed a design that would appeal to individual, active community members, who makeup 70% of their donations and also reach out to new donors. It was clear that our overall goal should be to create an eye-catching message that would give the viewer a general idea of what the food bank was and lead them to their website.
SLO Food Bank
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Serves over 30,000 people
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Food comes last for low-income individuals
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58 million pounds of produce are left to rot in fields every year
How we used this information
The three facts above encompass the drive of the food bank, they represent the who (the community), the what (rescuing and distributing food), and the why (food is a need, not a want). These needed to be our who, what, and why as well.
Sketch Exploration —
We explored different concepts and styles, such as showing the power of the dollar and how food shouldn't be a privilege. After presenting these preliminary ideas to our client, they approved of our "Food should never be a luxury" idea. This concept's goal was to show that many people who are food-insecure struggle to obtain foods that non-food-insecure people take for granted. To view these mundane foods through a luxury lens is unusual and draws a viewers attention to these two contrasting ideas. Most people don't think of fruit as being a luxury but as commonplace.
Visuals —
To convey a visual sense of luxury, we made food appear extravagant by juxtaposing them with gems and jewelry. The gems are meant to give the impression that the food has a high value, sending a message to the viewer that contrasts their normal negligible experience with these food types. We used produce since half of what the food bank distributes is fresh produce. Using produce also creates a stronger contrast with the gems, nature next to materialism.
The lavish type contrasts with the text, creating dissonance
The typography was inspired by the art deco style and designed to emphasize the message of luxury. It draws the viewer's attention with a big, decorative font that is still legible at various sizes.
Variations —
Each poster uses the same composition with slightly varying subject matter and text. We created attractive eye-catching designs by using bright fruits and veggies and contrasting dark saturated backgrounds. Our three variations used lightly different text to keep the series cohesive yet different enough to be applied in different ways. Each poster does an equal job of sending our message that food shouldn't be a luxury. The tagline is the same in all three: "For too many people, it is. Help alleviate hunger with us." This line tells neatly tells our viewer what the purpose of the poster is, to help hunger in SLO county. Without it, the poster would be to vague and possibly lead to misinterpretation.
Applications —
Food insecurity is a large problem that many Americans face and SLO Food Bank is doing everything they can to help. These advertisements are to help spread awareness of the non-profit and encourage donations of both money and time. Diverse applications, from mail cards to magazine ads, are needed to reach as many community members as possible.
