Viridian Summer Health Warning Contest

Content

I did not want to simply scare people by showing them frightening images of death in the summer heat. I don't want to create an army of elderly vampires who avoid the sun completely because our posters suggested that heat will kill them. Rather, I wanted to inform them that heat CAN kill them, if they don't take proper percautions.

I also thought it was important to provide information about the proper percautions both in text and graphical form. I feel that it would be useless to tell the audience about something that might kill them without giving them information as to how to avoid danger. Again, I'm not a designer, so you'll have to forgive the crude look of those icons. A real designer would have made them look quite nice. But you get the idea.

Design

I deliberatly chose to mimick the look and feel of 1950's Fallout Shelter signs for a couple of reasons.

1. Our posters are supposed to remind the target audience about the threat of danger, but also to provide a solution that will keep them safe. That is what the Fallout Shelter signs did. So, by mimicking the look and feel of Fallout Shelter signs, I am subconsciously telling our target audience that these signs discuss both danger and safety.
   
   
2. Fallout Shelter signs were (to the best of my knowledge) used during the 50's and 60's, when our elderly target audience was 30 to 40 years younger. I assume (and I have to admit, I have no factual knowledge on the subject, only my assumptions) that the look and feel is familiar to them, and even if they are illiterate or have trouble seeing, etc, the look of the poster will hopefully catch their eye and encourage them to read it.
   
   
3. I like the idea of comparing the threat of summer heat waves to that other man made threat that the elderly residesnts of our country experienced.