The tragedy of this past weekend's earthquake and tsunami in Japan has touched us all. Almost immediately email traffic increased, not just inquiring about the safety of family and friends, but offering imagery in support of the victims. While few images are more vividly moving than the color video and stills captured throughout the Web, the posters and illustrations I received in my email queue have an emotional resonance.
Here are a few of this weekend's output from (from top to bottom): Yossi Lemel (Israel), Erik Brandt (USA), Max Erdenberger (USA), the Cormack McCarthyesque image by Jeremy Traum (USA) and Andrea Rauch (Italy). Each designed to show solidarity and/or raise aid for earthquake relief.
(See the Weekend Daily Heller here.)
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The very first image above is very powerful. This is a great way to express sympathy through art. I'm wearing red today in honor of Japan and other countries affected. Thanks for sharing!
While all are powerful, the first image is very moving. Impactful. Always amazed at what can be said with no words.
Agreed. It always amazes me what can be said when one image is altered in just the right way.
P.S. Steven -- designers holding up their posters for photos?
http://untcomdes.blogspot.com/2011/03/call-to-action-japan.html
A great one is available for download here too. So great to see the community respond so quickly.
Here is one from Hawaii that is quickly getting attention:
http://www.fittedhawaii.com/hanahou/2011/03/12/aloha-for-japan/
Inspired, among other things, by these posters, I’ve designed my own, as well as an infographic and an entire microsite dedicated to the Great Tohoku earthquake
I would like to get a poster of the Fukushima Mon Amour image (or get permission to make a print -and by that I mean print and frame it). Who do I contact?
Thanks jeanie
I love Yossi and his work. I'm concerned, however, that more and more designers (thousands, internationally) are doing a sort of visual "ambulance chasing," waiting for the next opportunity to create a graphic message in response to catastrophy... with questionable motives and limited results. I'm not happy about feeling this way. A $10 donation to humanitarian efforts on the ground from each artist who makes a poster could go a long way. With respect to those posters applied to real awareness and fundraising efforts.
Well said, Lance, and a justified concern. The efforts here at our school are yielding positive results, and our fundraising is going really well. We have students with families in Japan who will buy clothes and food to send directly to Miyagi Prefecture, but we are also donating directly to the Red Cross. Now for some in-kind printer donations and hopefully the poster can raise even more!
My personal design contribute for Japan.http://www.designplayground.it/2011/03/design-playground-for-japan/
The catastrophe was sad, very sad. But is not less sad to see people doing the impossible to show their skills in situations where there is no need of the designer eye. Help in any way and keep in silence at least for the memory of the victims of this tragedy. As Raymond Carver titled one of his books "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?".
http://streetfiles.org/photos/detail/919628/