Graphic Design Project

For my next project in Visual Literacy, I was to use Photo shop to make a graphic design piece that would have a particular message. The message I wanted to state deals with the issue of Education in the United States of American. The USA is right now dealing with a major economic recession, and in order to save money, states everywhere are cutting their education departments in order to help balance their state budgets. With states cutting back on their funds for their schools, and with the "No Child Left Behind" Act still not being funded properly, schools everywhere are suffering. As a major supporter of improving the education system in this country I wanted to make a small poster-something you would see on a bench in the park, or a sign you would see as you ride the metro rail, that would help spread the word of the message of funding our schools.

What I did is I took a picture of children popping their heads out of a school bus, and edited it a bit. I first got rid of the words on the bus, and painted it with a different shade of yellow. After the bus was painted yellow I then added the text. On the top part of the bus I put the phrase "Fund Our Education" in bold letters. On the lower half of the bus I wrote "Let us go to school! We're the future!". The placement of this text on the bus makes it seem that the kids themselves are stating this message as if they don't want to stop going to school. In the white space under I place the phrase "Where will they go in life without School?". The placement was perfect making people who see this poster see the question and making them think what would they do without school. After that I decided to paint a background of the American Flag, as if it was behind the picture of the school bus. Since I draw like a 1st grader, it actually gives the sense that a child made this poster and is telling adults that he/she wants to still go to school. The other things I did to the poster was I made a glowing effect on the side, to make it seem that the bus would lead to a bright future if they had the funds. I then sharpen the edges to make the picture stand out more and made some small blurs to make it seem more animated. With these effects in I can see that if this was placed in public it would send the message that these students want to go to school, but need you to demand the state and federal government to fund them, for they will be the future of this country. That is what I try to state in this project and I hope my message was strong enough to be seen.