Plan B article

From the weekend I got my two books in the mail and was able to read them. I found that these two books had a lot of great statistics and information on overpopulation but lacked the angle that I would like to aim at. That angle is to investigate how women are raising children when they themselves are not ready. These children that are born into parents who might not be together, and also are not financially stable are more likely to have teen pregnancies, get in trouble with the law, and act out in school. For many people this is a touchy subject but it is a important one to talk about because we are populating more children from the younger generation of unfit parents than the ones who are educated and can afford to have children. Now some might think that this is straining from the topic "overpopulation" but it really isn't. If these are the types of families the child is being born into it will effect the way their family dynamic is, bouncing from grandparents mom, and dads house. Prone to get into more trouble as an adult.

A personal story of mine was that for 17 years of my childhood my mother did home take care. As much fun as it was to have kids to come home and play with, I got to see being a parent was not a baby commercial and as children become older the more expensive they are.

What will be my visual answer?

Before break I thought about doing an interactive piece based with info graphics. Visually this is the answer to my degree project but I would like to also persuade some act of a campaign to promote either adoption, (letting the adoption process become easier for people and less stressful) and also to ask young girls if they are fully prepared to have children. There could be facts that indicate how many children are in the media, and how the media promotes building a family knowing the parents will probably not be ready to have children.

For actual visual references I have been looking at good mag. They have very interesting info graphs that are closed and reveal type. I am also leaning more towards illustrations for visuals with playful typography to have more a feminine twist as well as speaks to the tone of the information.

In my mind right now I can picture a campaign that could read something like"why not you" having girls question themselves why they don't go for the achievements they want to, instead of trying to catch attention through a child. They say that 92% of children under the age of 2 are on the internet. Some of these kids are a way for the parent to gain attention. (Not to sound mean or judgmental, my nephews are also on Facebook)

What is the audience?

Obviously teenage girls will be my targeted audience. I thought about inner city kids as well but young pregnancy happens everywhere. I would really like to gain an emotional response to question why they don't peruse education or their "dreams" further before having children. Adding to my audience would be women who are having troubles with getting pregnant that are secure in their life. I'm still unsure on how exactly they will be tied in together because these are two very different audience but I believe that with the info graphs I will be able to reach out to both parties.

Here are the two books I will be reading.

This is the type of women our nation should be made of

Perhaps I can make an interactive campaign advocating the right way to set up urself before having a child. Our nation needs to praise people in general who are making the right decisions before having children.

This is funny

Week 01

To revise my question was: how can graphic design inform people about overpopulation?

At first my thoughts went to what aesthetic form it will take. Something interactive but could it be an iPad app, phone app, website? Another aspect I need to examine is what information I will be conducting. I have two books that I'm reading right now. Based on my senior presentation they said it would be a good idea to find 2 r 3 really great resources and limit my information to them.

I am also taking an environmental science class this semester that I believe will help my research as well. My teacher has also agreed to let me interview him at any time. I'm starting to come up with questions that I can ask him. Like: If you were depict 5 ways overpopulation was to effect us what would they be?

After talking with Kidwell, I have narrowed down my topic and beyond just "overpopulation". Something that makes me angry is when I sign on Facebook to find out another girl from my high school is pregnant. These are not the girls who went to college, or are married. Some of them probably have no contact with the father any more, living with their parents, and working either at a low income job or no job. I believe that the person who suffers from this is the child. From shows like teen mom and 16 and pregnant, you can watch how the care of the child moves from the mother to the grandparents. Even in these shows their purpose was good initially but as the ratings went up, it has become a soap opera of watching the mom yell and fight with the father or the grandparent. No longer is it about the struggles they have with young parenting, but how out of control they can get. This is a serious issue. Not that you have to be a genius to be a good parent, but being educated, having a steady job and hopefully be with someone that supports you having that child will build a better environment for that child to grow up in.

On the opposite spectrum I have a sister who just turned 30 this year. There are women who are been married, with good paying jobs, and are struggling to become pregnant. They would do anything to have a child of their own. So to make a baby they will turn and spend thousands of dollars to just have one child. It almost seems like they are being punished because of their age. Even to adopt a child it costs almost more money and is a very stressful process. In theory though they are doing the right thing by going to school, having a supportive spouse, they are creating an environment for their child that will be more likely to be happy.

To me this is a huge problem because more people who wait to have children might not have children and they are the type who should be populating our nation. Not the teenager on TV screaming at her mom that she wants to smoke pot. As entertainment America is glorifying bring a child into the world knowing they are not prepared. There is no way to be the up most prepared for being a parent. The odds for something to go wrong are going to be there. But shows such as Knocked Up, Private Practice, show children having kids who are not prepared.

Questions

How can Graphic Design inform and educate people about over population?