Laura Madden - 2023

Artist's Statement

One of the topics from this course that particularly struck a nerve with me was about the reality of our food and agricultural systems, particularly in the United States. Our obsession with meat and our constant consumption is not only significantly unsustainable, cruel to the planet and animals, but also hazardous to our health. For my final project, I utilized a poster project assigned from one of my graphic design courses: Type, Image, and Visual Continuity. The assignment was to create a “call to action” poster about a subject of your choice. Being double-sided, you read through the brochure, which leads the viewer through alarming facts and images, folding out to the larger poster on the backside. As a poster alone, the large image and vivid colors bring in the viewer from afar. Upon approaching, the smaller type and visual elements walk the viewer through an understanding of its purpose and evoke strong emotions.

During this project proposal, we were learning about food and agricultural systems in class, and had recently watched Food Inc. It was at this time that I finally committed to living a vegetarian lifestyle and urging others around me to eat less meat. Feeling unable to battle many of these large problems of corruption and mismanagement in many of our systems, challenging food and agricultural systems feels the most feasible to me at this time, thus leading me to the project’s subject matter.