Language for All
(Texas School for the Deaf Foundation)
Role: Designer
Texas School for the Deaf Foundation needed a campaign to raise awareness across the state. After some discussion with the heads of the foundation, my writing partner and I came up with the name/tag line for the campaign. It became Language for All. It was not just a rallying cry to raise awareness about the need for funding for the foundation, but also became a way to empower those in need with a demand for access to a basic human right.
Exploration
Raising awareness meant getting people's attention and hopefully starting a conversation. I explored a variety of ways to visualize this conversation we were trying to start with our audience.
One direction was a bit more friendly with a fun type treatment in a word balloon. It was approachable but not quite what we needed.
Sign language is a focal point for communication within this community. So the hands became a source for inspiration. However the client had warned us that in some instances the use of hands had become cliché. More often than not images of hands had been overused and repeated. I kept that information in mind but felt like I had to go down that road. The results varied from recognizable forms to a complete and total abstraction. While some of the results were nice, they still didn't get the reaction we wanted.
We ultimately went back to the idea that this was more than a conversation and actually a rallying cry. We were drawn to the visuals from the Constructivism art movement. The image you see here was just the jumping off point. I didn't want it to be a direct lift so I made some modification to the type to give us the final result.
This was the final version of the logo. It was used throughout the launch of the campaign in a variety of materials to promote the campaign and events that followed.
