This piece was a submission for a college project while I attended SSU. The project was to create a promotional banner for any of the public service announcements located on the Ad Council’s webpage. Most of my colleagues chose alcoholism or drug abuse because of the recommendation made by my professor due to the amount of examples that could be found on the internet. However, I knew that I wanted to stand out and execute a piece that would be unique. I chose kidnapping as my topic and without question, knew that my main objective would be to create a lasting impression via imagery.

The ransom-style headlines “We have her. Do you want her back?” were created from scans of magazine cutouts. Yes, I actually cut out the letters and re arranged them to create an authentic ransom not look. I tried multiple “ransom” fonts but none of them compared to actually cutting out the letters and using the scans. I kept the background clean and simple so I could promote focus on the subject and text of the poster. After creating my main text and placing the image, the rest of the poster came at something of a struggle. Through consultations with my professor (who at times was equally stumped) as well as help from friends, I attempted to bring forth the idea of childhood and innocence through my subtext question: “Where is your child right now?” I used a chalk/crayon style text to illustrate this idea, because it was childish and is something I think most parents can attribute instantly to their own kids. It served to really drive home the message: It can happen to your kid too, and helped the poster bond more with parents and children alike.