HOFLA Poster - Project 14

Introduction

    Heart of Florida Legal Aid Society (HOFLA) is a non-profit organization that provides FREE legal services to low-income individuals throughout the 10^th Judicial Circuit of Florida. This includes the counties of Polk, Hardee, and Highlands.

Their services include:

Family Law

    Divorce with Minor Children

    Child Support

    Paternity and Custody

Domestic Violence

    Representation for survivors seeking injunctions for protection and other civil relief.

Immigration Law

    Relief under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

    U-Visas

    T-Visas

    Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Pro Se

    Help for filling out forms for those electing to represent themselves in legal matters.

HOFLA Contact Information:

    Website: HOFLA.org

    Phone: 863-519-5663 (Bartow) or 863-402-6983(Sebring)

    Addresses: 550 E. Davidson St, Bartow, FL 33830 or 430 S. Commerce Ave, Sebring, FL 33870

HOFLA Poster

    My Graphic Design Class at Keiser University and I had the great opportunity to create an advertisement poster to help promote HOFLA and the services it provides.

Message

    The message of my poster is to let families know that it is okay to speak up. There are many people out there who keep secrets locked inside because they are afraid, embarrassed, think that abuse is normal, won't speak up because it is family, or do not think that anyone will believe them. Doing this allows the abuser to continue the abuse. I want everyone to know that there are people who care. There are services available to help individuals and families who are in need.

Audience

    This piece speaks about children who are victims of multiple types of abuse. The children in my piece are my step-children. They have been through mental, physical, and sexual abuse. They suffered through a tough divorce between their father and mother. Their mother is my partner. They also watched their mother be abused by their father, while also being abused themselves. My stepson to the right was also mentally and sexually abused by my biological great great great uncle.

    These subjects are often tough to talk about, and everything tends to happen at one time. When my partner got a divorce, we barely had enough money to do what we needed to do. We had no idea who to contact for help. Day in and day out we struggled. My family and I were living in a hotel due to the circumstances of the abuse of my stepson. We were barely making ends meet. Luckily, one of the employees at the court helped out tremendously. She waived our fee for the divorce papers, due to the severity of the charges for their father from the abuse against my stepdaughter, and she helped my partner fill out the papers. We would have been lost otherwise.

Design Decisions

    For my design, I knew immediately I wanted to include my stepchildren. I chose to take a photo of them up against a grungy-looking wall with posters for each of them saying who caused most of their abuse. The wall adds to the sad and dark feeling that you get when you think of people who have abused children, as well as the black and white picture.

    It took a few pictures to get the one I wanted. I had to make sure they were comfortable before I even did any of this. They also did not want to take pictures in front of many people.

    As a group, we chose Bebas as the font. I ended up going with a slight variation of Bebas, Bebas Neue Pro Extra Thick. I added a drop shadow to each phrase to make them pop. This font comes off as serious and professional. It is also easy to read.

    In the box at the bottom, we agreed as a group on the dimensions, fonts, and spacing. I chose blue as my main color because it is professional and trusting, and gold represents power. For the color at the bottom, I selected a sample from the logo. Blue and gold text stand out and pair well together.

    I added a blue overlay, texture, clarity, dehaze, vignette, and vintage profile 1, and I tweaked the contrast and whites to bring my piece together.

Conclusion

    This piece hit home for me. My family has been involved in multiple situations that involved the need for a lawyer, and we just did not have the funds or help that we needed. This was an amazing opportunity. It was a pleasure designing an advertisement that I know will help the community and people who have been through what my family has. There are so many families out there who are doing the best they can. This was my first time designing something for a real client. I did have to change certain parts of my design to meet the needs of the client. This was also our first project working as a group to create a cohesive series. It has had its ups and downs, but it has flowed pretty well. Overall, I was impressed with my final design, and my class came up with some unique designs as well.