The brief:

Create a series of 3 posters communicating wisdom and life-lessons without using words (lettering was allowed). 

My concept: 

We are all different, but what we have in common is that life sometimes shits on our heads. Reality suddenly hits us in the face, we meet people with terrible personalities and our dreams seem to be harder to fulfil than we initially had hoped for. These are things we just have to deal with and it is important to show that it is OK to have some shitty days in between, because they are part of life as well. 

There is a humorous vibe to the posters to make them appealing to the target audience and to underline that it is OK if you mess things up. It happens to all of us.

Full brief: 

"Dig deep into your hard-won wisdom and life lessons, and celebrate them through illustration or photography. ldentify the advice you'd like to give, and create a series of 3 posters or prints to visually bring your insights to life. 
Can you communicate wisdom without words? They say a picture's worth a thousand. Create images that pack a punch and get to the core of the heartfelt advice you're trying to express. Though this is all about craft, so you can incorporate lettering if that's your illustrative style."

My full concept and project description: 

Today’s youngsters have been taught they can be and do whatever they want, but when that does not happen, many get depressed. Inspirational quotes that tell you to "just smile" and have "positive vibes only" can make people even more down, because they cannot seem to ”just smile” that easily. Inspirational quotes are not realistic and they cannot be applied to your life that easily. They are kind of like life wisdom advice’s equivalent to photoshopped underwear ads. 

We are all different, but what we have in common is that life sometimes shits on our heads. Reality suddenly hits us in the face, we meet people with terrible personalities and our dreams seem to be harder to fulfil than we initially had hoped for. These are things we just have to deal with and it is important to show that it is OK to have some shitty days in between, because life is ups and downs. This is an overly pessimistic screw-you to all inspirational quotes; to compensate for the damage they have done.

There is a humorous vibe to the posters to make them appealing to the target audience and to underline that it is OK if you mess things up. It happens to all of us and it is going to keep on happening. 

Knowing - and accepting - that life cannot be boiled down to inspirational quotes is important wisdom to acquire. These posters challenge the established perception that you have to succeed perfectly at everything you do. After all, we’re only human.