Business News
Karlsruhe designers highlight fear of dying
Thursday 31. January 2008 - Graphic designers Jürgen Stephan and Johannes von Freydorf from Karlsruhe have realised their own highly innovative poster campaign for a charity helping people come to terms with dying, thanks to Sappi's Ideas that Matter programme.
Last November Heidelberg based charity OASIS e.V. organised ‘Totentanz’, a weekend of film, music, theatre and discussions about life, death and dying. Also in November eye-catching posters appeared on city bus shelters. Striking close-up photographs of the faces of a young man, a young woman and an old man, stylised in sepia tones to remove their ‘everyday’ feel, looked directly out at the viewer. By day, the faces carried the discreet message “Für achtsames Leben”, while at night, backlighting revealed a large white cross behind each face and the additional words “und Sterben”.
“The posters were intended to be a type of photographic exhibition in places where the public normally expect to see advertisements for electronic products or underwear,” explains Jürgen Stephan. “But since the work of OASIS is primarily based on people talking to people, we wanted the initial perception to be of human beings. During daylight the idea of life was the central message, but after dark this changed to the inevitability of dying. The underlying message was to live a full life for as long possible and to not be afraid of death.”
“The campaign was an exceptionally creative idea that was perfectly implemented on paper,” adds Sue Griffin, Marketing Communications Manager at Sappi. “The designers used print in a dramatic way to highlight a sensitive subject that, sooner or later, has to be faced by everyone.”
The OASIS campaign was among 11 selected in Europe by an international committee of design experts. Each year, the Sappi Ideas that Matter programme awards grants worth US$1 million to designers around the world to enable them to promote social, environmental or humanitarian causes. Applicants are required to submit their creative ideas supporting their chosen cause, a description of the campaign and its objectives, a cost estimate for its implementation and information about the charity involved.
Deadline for the 2008 programme is 1 June 2008.