M3 CP - Awareness Poster (Part 1)

For the awareness poster, I chose the following subjects:

Biodiversity in your backyard.

I chose this theme after researching weed control for my backyard. This topic is essential due to the current way how we upkeep our yards. Most people in the US believe that neatly manicured lawns symbolize success; they are a physical manifestation of the American Dream of home ownership. To have a well-maintained lawn is a sign to others that you have the time and the money to support this attraction. Our planet is suffering from pollution, climate change, and soil degradation, among other problems. Covering two percent of American land, lawns use more water than any agricultural crop. Changing the way we tend to our properties will go a long way in helping a lot of those issues. Adding native plants will help pollinators, birds, and soil. Avoiding weedkillers will keep the runoff clean and birds and pollinators safe, which will help with crop pollination, pest control, and keeping carcinogens out of our food.

Most people like to have songbirds in their backyards, so I chose them for my concept. Also, when people think weedkiller, they think dandelions, but unfortunately, eradicating those weeds by using pesticides affects others: bees, birds, fish, and our drinking water.

Recycling etiquette.

I chose this topic because most recycling programs nowadays are single-stream recycling. Dumping dirty containers will most likely contaminate any cardboard and papers in the bin. This will turn it into waste, making your recycling efforts worthless. Also not, rinsed containers can attract critters like rats, raccoons and etc. That can create a nuisance for a homeowner. Simply getting that information out there will significantly increase the efficiency of the recycling process. For my concept, I chose simple images that explain my reasoning to people: a milk jug with the message, a sad recycling bin with a hand throwing in a half-full bottle, a raccoon licking yogurt container, and an evil ketchup dripping on a cardboard box.

Abuse, domestic violence.

I chose this topic to show different facets of abuse that abuse victims can look different: men, women, and children all get abused and not always physically. For my concept, I included various ways to reach out for help. I also don't want to use faces, but mostly silhouettes, to concentrate on the act of abuse, not how people look. I want to use a dark background to accentuate the difficulty of the situation for the people involved.

Sources:

https://gizmodo.com/popular-pesticides-are-killing-birds-too-1844673035

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/the-american-obsession-with-lawns/#:~:text=Lawns%20are%20indicative%20of%20success,money%20to%20support%20this% 20 attraction.

https://modernfarmer.com/2022/05/american-lawns-no-mow-may/

https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/why-cities-are-ending-single-stream-recycling

https://www.thehotline.org/