PSA Poster Series

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PSA Poster & Ad Series Project Statement:

The project's goal was to create and design a poster and advertisement series that serves as a Public Service Announcement (PSA). The series includes two 16" x 20" posters that share similar styling alongside four advertisements that consist of a colored magazine print ad, a black & white magazine print ad, a social media ad, and a web ad. The project's designer, Zach Paul, made the importance of wearing a seatbelt while driving his PSA topic. Zach personally owes his life to a seatbelt, with one having saved his life in a car accident back in 2019. Thus, the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt and ultimately the necessity of wearing one is the message he shares.

All designs in the series feature elements that achieve the same goal. The title of all designs reads a common excuse drivers make for not wearing a seatbelt. The font for these titles is Burnaby, which resembles smeared liquid. Additionally, all titles, with the exception of the black & white print ad, are darker red in color, making the smeared liquid text resemble blood. The excuse styled in a way resembling blood demonstrates the dangers that making an excuse to not wear a seatbelt can have. All designs utilize black text for informative pieces, such as facts or telling the audience to visit the provided website. Additionally, the same red text used for the title is used to emphasize important pieces of the design as well, an example being the call to action on each of the designs. The exception to these is the black & white ad, which uses lighter gray for informative text and darker gray for emphasis. All designs feature a fact from the NHTSA, which serve as proof that wearing a seatbelt saves lives and not wearing one can end lives. All designs feature the same call to action, which is to "just wear it". The simplicity of the call to action resembles the simplicity of the action of putting on a seatbelt, demonstrating that such a simple action can save your life.

Poster #1, the black & white ad, and the web ad all feature the same illustration designed in Adobe Illustrator. The illustration is a seatbelt shaped to resemble a heartbeat monitor. Heartbeat monitors are associated with severe injuries or death, which is often the result of motor vehicle accidents in which a seatbelt was not worn. Where the monitor "flat-lines" is also where the seatbelt disconnects, indicating that the disconnected seatbelt was the cause of death. The illustration representing death alongside the title representing danger ultimately shows that making any excuse for not wearing a seatbelt can be deadly.

Poster #2, the color print ad, and social media ad all feature an illustration in which a disconnected seatbelt is wrapped around a gravestone. The gravestone, like a heartbeat monitor, is associated with death, and the disconnected seatbelt around it demonstrates that failing to wear the seatbelt was the cause of death. This illustration paired with the excuse title also encapsulate the deadliness of making an excuse for not wearing a seatbelt.