This is a process book for my Communication Design senior thesis project. The piece detailed was displayed to the public at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design on April 16, 2010.
Andrew Palios
DEFINING AN INVESTIGATION
Why Gangs?
The Demographic
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RESEARCH
The Demographic
Board Game
Activity and Coloring Book
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DESIGN
Campaign Strategy
Identity Posters
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Crayons Website
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Television Spot
Activity and Coloring Book
Board Game
REFERENCES
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CONTENTS
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WHY GANGS? The question came up many times during the development stages of this project. I could sense that some people would ask the question expecting to know the answer already. Were you in a gang before? Is that why you did this project? “I have never actually been in a gang before,” I would reply. My answer seemed to disappoint them because there must have been some connection between gangs and why I chose this project. Truthfully, my rationale for the project was a result of a communication problem. One day I was walking home from work and just entered my apartment building in Milwaukee. My landlord had just arrived after walking his dogs, looked at my shoes and said, “Why do you wear white laces on black shoes for?” “I don’t know,” I said, “I just like the way they look.” My landlord replied, “Do you know what that means?” “No,” I said, “What does it mean?” He said, “It means white power.” This is of course a statement used by the Aryan Brotherhood gang. Essentially, I was communicating something to others without intentionally communicating it myself. Of course, not everyone would think that I was part of a white supremacist gang. However, some could have, and I may have been putting myself into danger without even knowing it. This fact lead me to believe that taking on the gang issue in Milwaukee was worthwhile and something that could educate others like myself.
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THE DEMOGRAPHIC During the conceptual stages of my project there was a great debate as to whether or not my target demographic would have been too young. While doing my research I found an organization called Talking with Kids. They state that the best age to talk to kids about serious social issues and violence are from 8 to 12 years old. This is particularly important to kids that may be at risk of gang involvement in the future because most gang members are between the ages of 13-17 years old. Teaching kids about the dangers of gangs and the costs of gang involvement at the ages of 8-12 could then prepare them for what to look for and what to avoid socially when reaching the ideal age for gang recruitment.
DEFINING AN INVESTIGATION
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THE DEMOGRAPHIC Some would look at a campaign directed to kids and say to themselves, “This is too graphic, children at this age should not be exposed to violent situations or graphic imagery like this.� Originally, I would have had the same sentiment. Growing up in a great neighborhood with a loving family and a healthy community programmed me to think that a campaign that told hard truths about gangs to 8-12 year old children would be too extreme. However, I quickly learned that I was not a part of the demographic that I needed to target for this campaign. After speaking with Paulina De Haan, member of the Milwaukee Safe Streets Initiative and my mother and Social Worker Aspasia Palios, my demographic became clear to me. My target demographic already knew much more about gangs than I did, and likely have seen people be killed or seriously injured by gang violence in their neighborhoods. The guidance I received from both sources was simple, stay away from violent imagery but do not soften the cost and dangers of gang involvement.
BOARD GAME The goal of Gang Life is Not a Game is to teach 10-12 year old children skills necessary to deal with the pressures of joining gangs, preventative strategies to avoid gang behavior, methods to identify areas that inhabit gangs, and to understand what to do in situations of gang interaction. Paulina De Haan provided me with direction on where to focus my questions and what skills are prevalent in today’s fight against gangs. “Focus on guns and graffiti,” Paulina said, “give the kids real situations they could face everyday like what to do if someone makes fun of them or asks them to smoke weed after school. Don’t make the kids answer the questions in a way that they look like a nerd either. It could open them up to further abuse. Make the answers to the questions cool so nobody would be embarrassed to use them in a real life situation.” Paulina also told me to focus on a few major areas when developing the board game. “Mean mugging and disrespecting are huge. Most juvenile gang altercations spawn from these things.” Paulina’s advise gave me lots of direction to work with and focus as to what the substance of the skills in the board game would involve.
RESEARCH
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Ron Johnson, a former gang member, High School Principal and coordinator of after school leadership programs in the city of Milwaukee gave great feedback on the questions included in Gang Life is Not a Game. After developing the questions for the game, I met Ron at his coffee shop where we discussed how the game could be improved. One of the suggestions he made to the game was the idea that, in gangs today, racial separations are becoming less important. “It used to be that the black gangs would only accept black gang members and the white gangs would only accept white members. Now, some black gangs accept white members and vice-versa. “Most of your questions have Anglo-Saxon names like Bob, Joe and Alex. You should put in Chinese, African American, Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic names into the board game questions, this way it is more realistic.”
ACTIVITY AND COLORING BOOK The Activity and Coloring Book research was based on activity book acquired from Aspasia Palios’ social work references. Aspasia’s books use art therapy to get children to express the things they feel are good or bad about their neighborhoods or personal lives by drawing them out on work sheets. The books then educate the children about what the good or bad events or feelings are coming from later in the text. Using these social work books as reference, I developed the Activity and Coloring Book to begin letting children, ages 8-10, express the feelings they have about their neighborhoods or schools, whether they be good or bad, and then begin to teach the children that they are unique individuals. Children are then introduced to a definition of gangs and what a gang member is. They are then challenged by exercises that show what gang involvement could mean for themselves and their families, as well as, what signs to look for in their neighborhoods that can inform them if a gang may exist there. Finally, the Activity and Coloring Book is designed to get children to understand just how much of a reality gang involvement could be for anyone, a story was developed at the end of the book that kids are asked to color. After reading the draft of the Story of Sam, Ron Johnson said, “You really do need something like this story at the end because this gives the kids a real life scenario into what leads people into joining gangs. What happens to these brothers in the story really happens to people.” To my surprise, I had no idea the story was so close to a real life situation. My goal was to tell a compelling story about how a gang could hurt an innocent person.
RESEARCH
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CAMPAIGN STRATEGY The strategy of this campaign is to reach children in areas with gang involvement and activity. Through research it became apparent that in order to do this both parents and communities would have to be involved to make the campaign successful.
IDENTITY The CAGE identity was designed to work in two ways. First, the identity was designed to stand alone as and alpha glyph which would incorporate the campaigns acronym. Second, the identity was designed with a logotype that would translate the acronym shown within the alpha glyph. The design would allow for flexibility in the use of the identity in terms of composition and proximity to the two individual elements.
DESIGN
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POSTERS Posters serve the purpose of bringing awareness to the campaign and building traffic to the website. The posters are particularly targeted to children ages 10 to 12 years of age and their parents. The posters are designed to appeal to children that would be attracted to the idea that looking a particular way can make them part of a group. This approach targets directly into the appeal of gangs to recruits, which is the feeling of community and belonging one receives by being a gang member. I decided to address the culture of status when wearing bling as a gang member and the feeling of being part of a group when identifying with a particular gang color.
CRAYONS Crayons, much like the campaign posters, were designed to bring awareness to the campaign and draw traffic to the website. The method in which these elements in the campaign achieve their goal is by distribution throughout a community or between individuals. The website encourages individuals to display the crayons at schools or in neighborhoods. The crayons can also be used to color in the activity book as well, playing well into the concept that the pen is mightier than the sword. In essence, a community that encourages knowledge and creativity is stronger than one which encourages guns and violence. The idea is that the unique shape and colors of the crayons will attract enough attention for the target demographic to pick up and visit the website or share with others.
DESIGN
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WEBSITE The CAGE website is designed to strengthen the campaign by allowing members of the community to volunteer their time and resources to the cause. It also educates parents about what they should look for in their children, or their children’s friends, that could be an early warning sign of gang involvement. Additionally, tips as to what schools should be aware of when it comes to gangs are provided so that parents may be educated when attending PTA meetings or parent teacher conferences. Finally, the website utilizes an online store function that sells the board game, activity book, crayons and posters to encourage a community effort behind the cause. Having the store function also encourages parents or teachers to purchase materials if warning signs arise in their community and parents begin demanding some kind of anti-gang curriculum be adopted immediately. This would empower parents of children in effected communities without having to wait for funding or approval from the school board.
TELEVISION SPOT This component adds another medium to raise awareness for the campaign and increase traffic to the website. The approach of the spot is to communicate statistics about the gang problem in the nation while also keeping viewers drawn in with the use of engaging design. Symbolically, when gang statistics are presented in the spot, they transition over gang graffiti style spray paint. Next, the troubling gang statistics are erased in the next transition. This speaks to the fact that if gang graffiti is covered up in the community, immediately after its discovery, it is less likely to turn up in the same area again for a long period of time, if at all.
DESIGN
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ACTIVITY AND COLORING BOOK The activity book from a design standpoint seriously takes into account production cost. The entire book is designed in one color. The goal is for a parent to either go to the website and download a PDF file of the book to print out from home and give to children or photocopy sheets from the actual book itself. This enables teachers to make printouts of exercises they feel would be the most effective for their particular classrooms as well.
BOARD GAME The graphic treatment of the board game itself is focused on the constant battle between law enforcement and gangs. The first thing the viewer is drawn towards, besides the title of the board game, is a graphic in the center that displays, “Gangs,” crossed out with an, “X,” in spray paint. This concept directly relates to the act of gangs using spray paint to disrespect one another in rival neighborhoods. This graphic directly disrespects all gangs in the name of a united community against them. Gray fingerprints that surround the board with gang behaviors are also used symbolically as a graphic element in the game. As a player earns enough points to purchase a white fingerprint, they are instructed to place the fingerprint over a grey fingerprint that features a particular gang behavior. This gives the player the opportunity to, when landing on the white fingerprint space, roll the dice and earn extra points. Conceptually, the white fingerprint represents the exposure of a criminals identity through fingerprint lifting, a common practice in law enforcement. The gray fingerprint with the gang behavior would, of course, represent an unidentified print behind the gang behavior. When solving the visual problems faced when incorporating gang behaviors and earning extra points, one problem still remained. How to visually provide spaces for players to move, and at the same time, give them a direction as to what type of card they would draw when landing on a space. This visual problem was solved by creating a series of icons that would serve as spaces for players to move, visual cues as to where to choose questions, and direction for where to find answers.
DESIGN
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JERRY REINKE – 414.229.1011 Vice-President of the Great Lakes International Gang Investigators Coalition, Corrections Field Supervisor
PAULINA DE HAAN – 414.313.8985 Community Coordinator for the South Side Milwaukee Safe Streets Initiative
ROMKE DE HAAN – 414.347.1266 Presentation Layer and Technical Architect at Hanson Dodge Creative
JUDIE PAPADAKIS – 414.229.0647 State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Agent
RON JOHNSON – 414.313.8945 Community Coordinator for the Milwaukee Safe Streets Initiative
ASPASIA PALIOS – 708.202.2594 Social Worker at Veterans Affairs Chicago
REFERENCES