Creative expression to prevent gun violence
Oregon group launches nationwide community art project
CHALLENGE
Incidents of gun violence have broken our collective and individual hearts time and again. In the United States, each incident incites a polarizing, often judgmental debate. Aside from (hopefully) holding our loved ones a bit closer, many of us are left wondering what we can do about such a deeply emotional and complex issue.
In September 2015, a group from Southern Oregon contacted us with a unique perspective. Vision Quilt is asking people to envision a future without gun violence. They host creative workshops to help people express themselves, and they're collecting 18 x 24-inch works of art from participants. They piqued our interest when they told us they were recruiting people of all ages and backgrounds, including gun owners. We were impressed by the commitment they showed to embracing all voices and promoting the simple idea that change is possible. They were inspired by the AIDS quilt, and they're aspiring to reach a similar scale. Founder Cathy DeForest says, “This will become a major national movement shown in monuments and houses of worship around the country.” She pictures the quilts displayed at the Washington Monument one day.
The core committee was developing a campaign theme when Cathy reached out to Blue Marble for help. As seasoned professionals and artists they were not short on great ideas. They needed an outside authority to help them discern and develop their best concepts. At this point they had 20-30 panels, a few photos, and the beginnings of a website. They were eager to reach out to influential contacts and prospective partner organizations, but first they needed to be sure their message was clear, and that they would be taken seriously.
INSIGHT
We started with a review of the language Vision Quilt was considering. We watched videos and articles they shared to describe their views and motivations, and we discussed these ideas over a number of conference calls. When addressing a contentious issue like this it's important to for us to pay attention to many sources of commentary to build empathy for the audiences our client wants to reach. We refined the existing language with the goals of being clear, concise, engaging and nonpartisan. The writing was a collaborative process with a lot of testing on outsiders. When everyone agreed, we pared the language down one last time, suggesting an appropriate hierarchy for presentation on their website.
To visually represent the project, we advocated for a text-only logo, and for developing an adaptable visual language around that. It is common for people to want a logo that says everything, but of course that's challenging to pull off. In this case, the quilt panels themselves speak volumes—beautiful, poignant, politically charged, and with a wide range of visual styles. There was an important balance to be struck here between letting the panels be seen, and offering an inspiring but neutral focal point to welcome new participants.
We collected sketches and ideas from the group before providing a recommendation. One of our insights was to steer clear of quilt imagery. Stitching, warm fabric, and pieces coming together all seemed like nice metaphors, but we found these quilt ideas most compelling when described verbally. Graphically, we needed to counteract the image of a traditional quilt to convey the inclusiveness and scale of this work. One team member showed us a quilt she made when she was sixteen in the shape of the United States. Another was drawn to bright, hopeful colors, and provided some examples using watercolor. We merged these ideas to come up with the watercolor map imagery.
Inspiration provided by Vision Quilt
The custom, handwritten logo is intended to convey the grassroots and emotional nature of the project. The map image delivers the main idea—a national art project. We provided alternate imagery for use on business cards and event banners of hands coming together with different artistic media, showing how the watercolor look could be extended to other symbolism. Time will tell how to best evolve this brand and we look forward to continued collaborations.
RESULTS
The new language and visuals were added to the website just in time for high-profile meetings and introductions.
The client reports that the professionalism of their materials has helped to inspire confidence from partner organizations at the national and local levels.
A variety of assets have allowed Vision Quilt to continue growing and building out their communications on a shoestring.
People ages 4 through 92 have contributed to the project.
We look forward to seeing Vision Quilt in our social media feeds each day, as the number of new panels increases along with press coverage of these events. Everyone is invited to share their voice, even you! To learn how, visit visionquilt.org
“You helped us so much. We had artists, and great people with a lot of expertise on our core committee, but you went beyond where we were able to go. You listened to us very carefully to understand what we were about, and then you made strategic decisions about how to express that for us pictorally and verbally. We would still probably be trying to figure out the color and the logo and all of that, but that map just landed us. That was huge! I always want a program to be elegant, and what you created is elegant, and I think it really shows the wide net that we are casting.”
– Cathy DeForest, PhD, founder of Vision Quilt