After an initially frustrating idea generating experience, we went away over the weekend and used the time to think individually. We talked about board games, the law of robotics, a way to disrupt materiality of an object, things that trigger a sensory discomfort such as mixing the flavours of orange and mint and things meant to spark joy such as chocolate and sweets with horrible messages (think of a pack of love hearts that insult you).
However, after an insight from a group Louise’s sister who studies child psychology we thought of a disruption to the accepted order of what it is appropriate to teach children about. This was backed by a recognised problem that children are unable to have the vocabulary to explain traumatic events that are happening to them. We wanted to disrupt the order of what is suitable to talk about to children.
We thought of graphic devices which we could communicate our message through. We were drawn to the classroom setting. This is where children learn and become accustomed to societal rules. We looked at graphic teaching devices used in schools. We came to (garishly) designed posters educating children about the alphabet or times tables etc.
This is where we realised our “aha!” moment. Using the alphabet poster style, we could introduce our negative words such as “h is for homophobia” or “k is for knife crime” pairing them with illustrations.
Cameron Aitken Graphic Design 