For this project, we were to create an educational pamphlet and app for educational and awareness purposes. I chose to focus on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls—MMIWG for short—which is considered by many a concealed human rights crisis, genocide and emergency. When the pamphlet has been read, it can easily be unfolded and flipped to reveal its second life: a call-to-action poster. It is meant to invoke a guerilla action by the user in order to help spread awareness. My main direction for the app was partly to share the real stories of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls to hopefully reach an emotional response from the user, and partly share information about safety and how the user can help.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls—MMIWG for short—is considered by many a concealed human rights crisis, genocide and emergency. Concealed, because it is not talked about enough in media, but most of all by the Government who is not taking nearly enough action.
Indigenous women and communities, women’s groups and international organizations have long called for action into the high and disproportionate rates of viciousness and the horrifying quantities of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. It has lately, finally, become a subject of conversation across national media, but has unfortunately been going on for way too long while still being ignored by the government. There is still so much more that needs to be done, that needs to change.
For this project we were to create an educational pamphlet and app for educational and awareness purposes. I instinctively knew that my approach to this project was going to be quite personal, I felt that an alternative direction in regards to the visuals was important. When non-First Nations designers try to interpret the First Nations culture, it can often be stereotypically impersonal and customary. The challenge is trying to create original work which is neither offensive or politically incorrect. Without assumptions, the research that I pursued steered my design outline to which I added an intimate and personal signature.
Analyzing my research influenced my choice of colour palette as well as the stylistic choices in regards to the graphics. For example, I used imagery of native flora as a symbol of Indigenous women being pulled up by their roots, as it were. My colour choices became directly inspired by the most common colours used in First Nations art—red; white; yellow and black or dark green. Finally, I used raven and eagle feathers in my collages to tie them to the First Nations culture as well as the geographical area.
When the pamphlet has been read, it can easily be unfolded and flipped to reveal its second life: a call-to-action poster. It is meant to invoke a guerilla action by the user in order to help spread the awareness.
In an early stage of my research process, I came across the case of Tina Fontaine. Tina was only 15 years of age when she was found dead, wrapped in plastic in the Red River of Winnipeg, in August 2014. Because of the fact that Tina’s tragic death was so important for the MMIWG issue’s progress, she became the centerpiece of my pamphlet and was my muse throughout my own work progress for this project.
The idea for my app was to use icons and illustrations with a handdrawn touch in order to make it feel personal, and I also see it as being very animated and interactive; no screen is stagnant as illustrations have different animation loops and windows and arrows are transmorphing into their new states and shapes when tapped. The colour palette is meant to be a sort of continuation of the colours in the pamphlet, but here they are more vivid as to appeal to the digital screen.
My main direction for the app was partly to share the real stories of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls to hopefully reach an emotional response from the user, and partly share information about safety and how the user can help. The app is mostly scroll-based, with tappable windows which makes it resemble texting apps, almost like a conversation between the user and the MMIWG victims, again to appeal to emotion.
Link to inVision prototype here
Stand with your sisters.
