Brief

Design a poster raising awareness of a social or cultural issue.

Process

The topic of this poster is climate change. It’s too easy for people to look sideways when presented with such enormous issue and think that it doesn’t immediately concern them. I wanted to bring the message home to all of us Canadians by showing how the climate change is affecting and destroying everything we take for granted in this country. It puts a question mark over the core elements of our national identity and what we believe this country is and has been for centuries. The notion of Canada being The True North is embedded in the national identity.

I did this by using a staple visual item associated with Canada and adding an absurd element for a shock value, but still keeping it humorous.

The intension is to make the communication penetrate and grip the target audience’s consciousness in several steps. At a first glance the poster is nothing unexpected - a “mountie” on the horse, a maple leaf. It pretends to be something else – a retro recruiting poster from RCMP or a classic tourist attraction advertisement perhaps. But then the brain picks up on the inconsistency - the zebra in the place of the horse - and goes “What?… Wait a second…” The passerby gets theurge to have another look, just to make sure their brain read the image correctly. They come back, check and their brain goes “Whaaat????? …Hihihihi… ButWHY?!...” It makes them want to read the small text.

Check. The message hasbeen delivered.

In terms of design elements the poster utilizes two types of elements: classic ones to contribute to the overall nostalgic styling and the modern ones to deliver the message. The classic elements include the limited colour palette, classic serif typeface, texture. The modern elements are the stylized 11-point maple leaf from the modern Canadian flag and a sans-serif font.
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The idea behind this poster begs to be extended it into a series by replacing other visual elements associated with core concepts of Canada being a strong northern country.

For example, the maple leaf on the Canadian flag to be replaced with a palm leaf. The well-known polar bear shaped numberplate of the Northwest Territories to be shaped as an elephant instead. The beaver in the widely seen Parcs Canada logotype to be replaced by a monkey. Symbols of winter sports to be replaced by beach activities. The list can be continued.