Crime Stoppers cards

[Mitch Wood]

As mentioned here http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10942, we came to the conclusion that the previous direction was disjointed. I felt I needed to define my goals and make them a little clearer.

I have discussed a series of cards/posters with the client, based on the various subject matter of vandalism and the fact that Crime Stoppers will listen to ALL types of crime & anti social behaviour, not just serious crime as most associate Crime stoppers with here in the UK.

My aim is to make it personal (scenarios of personal & public property), so it will communicate a direct and relevant message.

I feel the copy will determine whether this route will be make or break if executed correctly.

The reverse of the card will be clean and follow the crimestoppers id. (met colours are now out) and will have copy that roughly translates to:

"Vandals may not care, but we do.

Crimestoppers take calls with information about any crime, no matter how insignificant you feel it is."

As I said the copy is very rough at the mo.

Do you think this is a viable direction to pursue?

p.s. The colour thumbnails are rough targets of the style i want to reproduce for the type on the front of the cards.

http://server2.uploadit.org/files/MitchWood-Vandalism_sml.jpg

[distruktor]

I reckon the spray paint version will be cool, however im not sure about the legibility of the scratches in the paint and the shattered glass and will the digital reproduction be convincing enough?

i'd come at it from a slightly different angle, you could create a 'police aware' sign thing like the cops stick in the window of vandalised cars over here in our beloved blighty... but instead of 'police aware' and all the other blurb you could set your own type stick it on a vandalised car and shoot that. The shatterd glass version could be a poster in a bus stop window that a vandal could have thrown a brick through it'd look kinda cool i rekon, shattered glass and a ripped / damaged poster with your message on.

also you could do the graffiti one but in stead of it being written in graffiti it could be on the side of the guys van who cleans the graffiti of the walls? could you do something with the 'police line don not cross' yellow tape as well?


just an idea

dis.

[Jason Fraker]

Th legibility may be an issue. It might be cool to make photorealistic scratches into a car and cracks in glass that spell the message, but have it set in actual type on the cards too. That way, there will be something for everyone, and the message will be sometimes doubly clear. I like where you're going.

[Mitch Wood]

Hi Dis, some food for thought there fella cheers.

I feel the cracks will be the hardest to emulate, if not well out of my mere PS skill range, but I will worry about the specifics of the finish later.

I have found some good tips, but a realistic finish, I am not sure of - I have other ideas to translate the type for the scenario. (bus shelter/phone box)

Don't worry about legibility at this point as my main concern is the message. I really want to show the personal relation with property against the pointless defacement of said objects and inspire folks to do something, and not take the shit the 'vandals' give! I don't want to be too obvious, so repeating type might take away from the clout of the message.

[distruktor]

yeah the message is spot on i rekon... or maybe even just 'i dont care' because, yeah, they dont care what people think, but they dont really give a sh*t about anything, personal property, public property, what people think of them who sees them doing it...

If its personal relationship your after then ignore what i said about the bus stop... the front door and car are rbetter, maybe you could do things like

car stereos being stolen - type could be on a newspaper on the front seat maybe?

bikes being nicked - the bike could be attached to a lampost and the type could be on a sign...or they could even be the graphics on the bike itself

dis.

[Mitch Wood]

Hi Distruktor, yes shortening the text to "I don't care" is deffo the way I would take the type here, can't believe I overlooked it.

After all less is so much more... ;)

[distruktor]

no sweat Mitch, might work, might not... worth trying it out though.

take it easy bud

Dis

p.s. stick something up when you can, id be interested to have a gander!

[zubaier]

I did some work for Crimestoppers a couple of years ago, in conjunction with the British Transport Police. The campaign was trying to get people to report hate crime.

One of the key points I had to consider when designing was legibility. This was due to the target market possibly not being fully fluent in English, or possibly short-sighted. Did you discuss that with them?

If these are being posted through peoples' letterboxes in London (what part of London btw), then I would make it as clear as possible really - a la the adverts you see on the Tube. Just a thought... be interesting to see how it goes though..

[Mitch Wood]

Hi Zubaier, thanks for posting.

Yes legibility is a concern, but my main objective right now is whether I am on the right track at the mo.

Was you involved with the "hate crime" poster that had the cut out person?

It will be posted around Hounslow/Feltham.

[Mitch Wood]

Any other comments are very much appreciated.

[YNOT]

I like the ideas behind each of your signs/cards. My suggestion might be this...

Make the image just an image of 'real' vandalization...with no text over it. For example...

Card one...
The image of the front door vandalized. It takes up the upper 2/3's of the card. Then on the lower 1/3 portion have a phrase..."This could be your Grandmother's house"

Card two...
Again, the image of the car all scratched up, taking up the upper 2/3's of the card up. Phrase could be..."This could be your daughters brand new car"

Card three...
Image of busted up phone booth on upper 2/3's of the card. Phrase could be..."You needed to make an urgent call...however this phone booth is now out of service"

I'm thinking on the lower third of the card...maybe it's an all black background with the phrases in bold white. On the lower right hand side I'm envisioning a STOP sign with the word "vandalizing" sprayed on it kind of like it was truly vandalized conveying the message of "Stop the Vandalizing". Or maybe it's "STOP the vandals...report them...keep this from happening to YOU" as a tagline under the "STOP" sign.

I hope this helps. Maybe I've completely missed what it is you're trying to achieve here, but this was what first popped into my mind when reading this.

Sounds like a really fun project. Good luck and keep us posted on how it progresses.

[zubaier]

Nope, the ones I did were basically a close-up of a face, zoomed in on one eye, with the colour bled out in order to not be able to see if it was a man, woman, black, gay or white (whatever basically). The person had one drop of blood coming out of his/her eye looking like a teardrop. The idea being that we all cry, we all bleed the same colour.. etc etc.. They were on the Tube..

They went down well - until the BTP started receiving complaints from Muslims and other groups complaining about being lumped in with homosexuals, then gay people started calling up and complaining about being lumped in with Muslims etc etc.. It was a right headache for them, so they pulled them..:eek:

Like walking on eggshells designing for the public sector... ;)



Hi Zubaier, thanks for posting.

Yes legibility is a concern, but my main objective right now is whether I am on the right track at the mo.

Was you involved with the "hate crime" poster that had the cut out person?

It will be posted around Hounslow/Feltham.

[Mitch Wood]

Nope, the ones I did were basically a close-up of a face, zoomed in on one eye, with the colour bled out in order to not be able to see if it was a man, woman, black, gay or white (whatever basically). The person had one drop of blood coming out of his/her eye looking like a teardrop. The idea being that we all cry, we all bleed the same colour.. etc etc.. They were on the Tube..

They went down well - until the BTP started receiving complaints from Muslims and other groups complaining about being lumped in with homosexuals, then gay people started calling up and complaining about being lumped in with Muslims etc etc.. It was a right headache for them, so they pulled them..:eek:

Like walking on eggshells designing for the public sector... ;)

I really like your direction there.

Most crimestoppers promotion is so soulless, yet when you inject some real substance in there, it is frowned upon. It sure is a bizarre city we live in.

Surely it's these narrow opinions that breed race hate anyway.

[Mitch Wood]

I like the ideas behind each of your signs/cards. My suggestion might be this...

Make the image just an image of 'real' vandalization...with no text over it. For example...

Card one...
The image of the front door vandalized. It takes up the upper 2/3's of the card. Then on the lower 1/3 portion have a phrase..."This could be your Grandmother's house"

Card two...
Again, the image of the car all scratched up, taking up the upper 2/3's of the card up. Phrase could be..."This could be your daughters brand new car"

Card three...
Image of busted up phone booth on upper 2/3's of the card. Phrase could be..."You needed to make an urgent call...however this phone booth is now out of service"

I'm thinking on the lower third of the card...maybe it's an all black background with the phrases in bold white. On the lower right hand side I'm envisioning a STOP sign with the word "vandalizing" sprayed on it kind of like it was truly vandalized conveying the message of "Stop the Vandalizing". Or maybe it's "STOP the vandals...report them...keep this from happening to YOU" as a tagline under the "STOP" sign.

I hope this helps. Maybe I've completely missed what it is you're trying to achieve here, but this was what first popped into my mind when reading this.

Sounds like a really fun project. Good luck and keep us posted on how it progresses.

Sorry Tony, forgot to say cheers fort the input.

I am continuing to work through another few concepts with different directions.

1. Placing the crimes in scenrios that can be personally related to. (not the vandals perspective as before, but the victims veiw.

2. Looking at the affect of small crimes, and why it should be reported.

I am a bit reserved with the idea of making the crimes 'directly' personal, as I didn't want to shock, and make the subject seem negative, but I feel it is a viable scenrio to investigate anyway. More call of action is needed, but there is a fine line between attention and negativity.

Hopefully will post some more info ASAP, but my workload is HEAVY at the mo!