This project consisted of designing a brochure addressing a social cause or issue. The issue I decided to research about was the family separation that happened under the Trump administration at the Mexican border. After developing the brochure, I translated the information into an installation.
According to a New York Times article about the parents of 545 children separated at the border that could not be found, a number of parents have been deemed "unreachable". I decided to use this word as my title. To me, it is a powerful word, and it has a lot to do with the subject matter. I also decided to use hyphenation because it emphasizes separation and makes the viewer read the word slower, also emphasizing the words "un", "reach" and "able". The word “reach” is being contained behind bars in the imagery of the cover page, in order to illustrate the unreachable status of these family members.
My color scheme consists of different shades of black and orange. Orange can also signify freedom and expression, and the bright orange creates a high contrast with the grayscale imagery throughout the spreads, which is meant to give the viewer a sense of urgency.
Installation
In terms of placement of information and composition, I wanted this experience to be close to overwhelming to the viewer. There is barely any body copy, however, the large numbers and statistics are on the “inside” part of the exhibit. Therefore, in order for the viewer to have access to those numbers, they need to go around the “border”, into the more claustrophobic area of the exhibit.
I also changed the orientation of the timeline, which is now vertical. As the information contained in the timeline stretches up, the top section can be deemed unreachable to the audience. The viewer is almost forced to strain their neck in order to get a better look at the data. In addition, the outside area of the timeline contains the bright orange tone used in the booklet, in addition to the image of a child crying. This photo went viral a couple years ago and became the symbol of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. I believe that this sight should create visual interest and attract audiences even from a large distance.
