FINAL PROJECT

For my final project, I delved into several different design techniques, both print and digital and researched the subject I had chosen to follow. Teenage suicide and bullying (which go hand in hand lately) were the topics that I chose to undergo through creating my campaign called "Legacy Alive".

My target demographic were parents and the youth themselves. I chose to create a more youthful design for the "teenage" design and the adult was more elegant in the choice. However, the words I used were also different. I used more powerful phrases for the parents as a "wake-up" call and chose more helpful phrases for the teenagers.

I kept a lot of my designs in B&W fashion, I felt some of the colorful ones had lost the meaning behind the actual topic and honestly, the subject matter is one that I feel works better in B&W. Though, the color designs I used, I kept with the bold color theme I had used prior to my designs.

In conclusion, the "Legacy Alive" project helped to broaden my design techniques along with keeping to a theme that I strongly believe in. In creating the designs, I also added a Pinterest board and Tumblr for the Blog. I feel that I will continue to use the Pinterest board to pin quotes, images, etc. that help expand the concepts I used in this project/course.

The links are here:
Tumblr
Pinterest

Here are my final designs:

 (Digital Ad)

 (Digital Ad)

 (Parent/Older Demographic Ad)

 (Half-fold Print Ad)

 (Website Header #1)

 (Website Header #2)

 (Full Page Print Ad)

(Small 1/2 page Print Ad)

(Tri-Fold Brochure)

(Young Demographic Ad)

Legacy Alive - Second Campaign

For the posters, I worked on two different, yet dynamic covers. I chose simpler colors for both posters and kept a clean approach for it. For the brochure, I felt simpler concepts and text were preferred due to the nature of the theme.

~Brochure~

~First Poster~

~Second Poster~

Legacy Alive - LIVE ON Campaign

PART ONE:

The campaign I chose for my second assignment and furthering into the class was on anti-suicide and bullying in teenagers to be precise. I felt that all teenagers have a chance to make a legacy for themselves and in such, I debated on several ways to proceed in this campaign.

While I didn't physically sketch out ideas, I will share my notes for the campaign that I used as my sketch.

Title: Legacy Alive
Tagline: Live On

• Use brighter colors
• Hope = Yellow, Blue
• Passion/Love/Desire = Red 
• Images/Symbolism = butterflies, tree branches
• Butterflies for a sign of hope, a sign of good fortune
• Tree branches for "reaching" beyond bullying and reaching out to students
• Bold fonts/"stable" looking typography
• A more cursive style font as well to symbolize the reaching out through longer strokes in the text itself

Finally, sharing the images I finally got an idea of what I liked from my ideas and started on the six logos/description/tagline styles:

For my first logo, I chose both red and blue colors for hope and passion, the passion would be more associated with a desire to live. The golden symbol in the back reminded me of arms reaching out and I feel that was a clean representation of the idealism behind saving someone from suicide. The second logo was a similar idea but I chose a more golden yellow and blue for hope again, the butterflies symbolize life and movement. The description I chose was very concise and straight to the point, with such a powerful message, I feel that having a lot to say would remove some of the power behind the idealism. The logo to the bottom left was a more direct style, the symbols behind the logo reminded me of daisies in the summer and I felt the blossoming message could be used, especially behind the legacy portion. For another tagline style, I tried "Have Hope. Live On." I thought that was a nice tagline, direct, to the point and the rose behind the type adds the blossoming hope concept. The final tagline placed several of my ideas together. I chose the butterfly and tree branch style and I chose "Be a Hero...Make a Legacy..." In this, I am saying be your own hero and make your legacy. While hoping others will help as well, the first person who needs the desire TO live, is the person's self and this tagline represents that strength behind a single individual.

PART TWO:

For the second advertisement portion, I chose to mix around my concepts with both the logos and the tagline. I had several ideas behind and keeping to the 4-color campaign, I feel I was able to establish a clean concept behind my designs.

For the first advertisement, I chose a lighter colored concept and used both the description and the second logo but I changed it to just the blue and gold. I really decided I loved the blue and golds together for the concepts and as shown even in my second logo, I stuck with these colors for the most part. The first, I used the butterflies to symbolize life and movement and used the description and the logo itself in the first. The second one, I chose a more bold approach, using singular solid colors and a dark background to offset the colors on the type and images. I chose the third logo and the tagline of "Be a Hero...Make a Legacy...", and like I had explained before on this particular tagline, it needed that bold approach.

In conclusion, I hope that I have started the process correctly and created a campaign that I can work with further for the class.

The Trevor Project & LGBT Youth Issues

The Trevor Project:

The life-saving, life-affirming work of The Trevor Project springs from the powerful intersection of storytelling on stage and film. 

In 1994, producers Randy Stone and Peggy Rajski saw writer/performer James Lecesne bring to life Trevor, a character he created as part of his award-winning one-man show WORD OF MOUTH. Convinced Trevor's story would make a wonderful short film, Stone and Rajski invited Lecesne to adapt it into a screenplay. Rajski directed the movie and TREVOR went on to win many prestigious awards including the Academy Award® for Best Live Action Short Film.

The Oscar-winning film eventually launched a national movement. When producer Randy Stone secured an airing on HBO with Ellen DeGeneres hosting, director/producer Peggy Rajski discovered there was no real place for young people like Trevor to turn when facing challenges similar to his. She quickly recruited mental health experts and figured out how to build the infrastructure necessary for a nationwide 24-hour crisis line, and writer James Lecesne secured the funds to start it.

On the night their funny and moving coming-of-age story premiered on HBO in 1998, these visionary filmmakers launched The TREVOR Lifeline, the first national crisis intervention and suicide prevention lifeline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of young people in crisis have reached out to The Trevor Project’s multiple in-person and online life-saving, life-affirming resources – the Trevor Lifeline, TrevorChat, TrevorText, TrevorSpace and Ask Trevor, or participated in Trevor Education Trainings, or joined the Trevor Advocacy Network or their local Trevor Ambassadors or Trevor NextGen volunteer group.

The Trevor Project is the premier organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ teens and young adults. Learn more at TheTrevorProject.org.

Experiences with Violence

Negative attitudes toward gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people put LGBT youth at increased risk for experiences with violence, compared with other students [1]. Violence can include behaviors such as bullying, teasing, harassment, physical assault, and suicide-related behaviors.

Eight of ten students had been verbally harassed at school;A 2009 survey* of more than 7,000 LGBT middle and high school students aged 13–21 years found that in the past year, because of their sexual orientation—

• Four of ten had been physically harassed at school;
• Six of ten felt unsafe at school; and
• One of five had been the victim of a physical assault at school [2]. 

*Survey participants were recruited online and through community-based groups and service organizations serving LGBT youth.

Another survey of more than 7,000 seventh- and eighth-grade students from a large Midwestern county examined the effects of school climate and homophobic bullying on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) youth and found thatLGBT youth are also at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, suicide attempts, and suicide. A nationally representative study of adolescents in grades 7–12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers [3]. More studies are needed to better understand the risks for suicide among transgender youth.

• LGBQ youth were more likely than heterosexual youth to report high levels of bullying and substance use;
• Students who were questioning their sexual orientation reported more bullying, homophobic victimization, unexcused absences from school, drug use, feelings of depression, and suicidal behaviors than either heterosexual or LGB students;
• LGB students who did not experience homophobic teasing reported the lowest levels of depression and suicidal feelings of all student groups (heterosexual, LGB, and questioning students); and
• All students, regardless of sexual orientation, reported the lowest levels of depression, suicidal feelings, alcohol and marijuana use, and unexcused absences from school when they were
• In a positive school climate and
• Not experiencing homophobic teasing 

Mission

The Trevor Project is determined to end suicide among LGBTQ youth by providing life-saving and life-affirming resources including our nationwide, 24/7 crisis intervention lifeline, digital community and advocacy/educational programs that create a safe, supportive and positive environment for everyone.

What Can You Do To Help?

The issues today with LGBT suicides and bullying is the fact that we choose to ignore the discussion of these topics with our children. Being LGBT is not a choice and the misconception that some teach to their children is the reason we have these issues still to this day. The times are changing, gay marriage is becoming accepted on a global basis. We have to learn to get past this hate to work towards a better outlook for the LGBT youth.

Sources

https://www.facebook.com/TheTrevorProject/info

http://www.thetrevorproject.org/

http://www.cdc.gov/lgbthealth/youth.htm