Each year Brophy College Preparatory, a Jesuit high school in Phoenix, AZ, hosts a 'Summit on Human Dignity' to address one of the worlds many pressing social justice issues. For two weeks the entire school community focuses on an issue through keynote speakers, workshops, prayer, classroom activities, art contests, and daily reflections. The title of the 2018 summit is "For Sale: The Commodification of the Human Person" and seeks to address the "widespread injustices related to pornographic culture and media, sexual exploitation, criminal networks and habits that perpetuate the trafficking of human beings, and enslavement of people by threat and economic imbalance in light of the gospel’s call to respect and promote the human dignity of each person." I was tasked with creating a poster for the event that spoke to the seriousness and diversity of the issues being addressed. For more on the summit visit the website here.

Behance Collection: https://www.behance.net/collection/168701933/summit-2018

Though the issues being addressed in this years summit have a scope well beyond simply the problem of human trafficking, I initially focused my research on that issue. Unfortunately I found that graphic design surrounding the topic was overwhelmingly cliche and reminiscent of low budget horror movie poster. Handcuffs, barcodes, smeared eyeliner, and stencil type seemed to dominate the trends. Though some of these cliches had potential to be artfully crafted, as displayed above, I opted to avoid this imagery in my design. 

After meeting with other design minded faculty and the director of the summit we agreed that more encomposing of our diverse topic would be the imagery of a dark hand. The "Stop Human Trafficking" poster by Greek designer Nikoleta Panagoulakou served as our main source of inspiration when selecting the symbol of this years summit and the layout of the eventual poster. When tasked with illustrating a "dark hand" immediately thought of the title credits and poster designed by Saul Bass for the film "The Man with the Golden Arm." After a variety of sketches of different concepts, illustration styles, and layouts the final design began to take form combining elements of Panagoulakou's and Bass' work. 

The design was created by scanning my rough drawings into Adobe Illustrator and using the pen and shape builder tools to illustrate the forms. Then I exported my artboard to Photoshop to add type and texture. Also in Photoshop I organized and exported my layers for use in an animation.

After a series of edits based on critique from design students and members of the summit planning committee we finally published the final poster as displayed above. The composition is effective in pairing bold illustration with an impactful message that prepares students and faculty for the upcoming event. The title creates immediate emphasis on the title and makes the declarative statement that in our world today the sad reality is that human beings are "For Sale." The dark geometric hands in contrast with the organic forms of the people highlight our attempt in the summit to clearly define what has otherwise been an amorphous issue. Additionally the multitude of the hands and the presence of the camera represent the widespread nature of the issue and how all are complicite in its global spread. The four people in the foreground are meant to represent a cross section of global victims of commodification; particularly, child labor, pornography, prostitution, and forced labor. The poster is intentionally negative and dark to provide context for the harsh reality of the issue and compel the student body to seriously engage with the summit so that a brighter future may be sought.