Foster Care Infographic
Starting as the first project of my sophomore year, I was given the task of creating an infographic on a topic of my choosing. After considering topics like fashion waste and sailing, I decided to highlight statistics involving adoption and foster care. This interested me because I've always desired to be a foster parent and ultimately adopt, but I didn't have a solid foundation to build on. So this project helped me understand more of the U.S. foster care system and how to educate others.
Fall 2019
The final infographic I turned in for the assignment. While I was pleased at the time, when it came to build my portfolio I wanted to push it further!
Spring 2022
For my edits, I wanted to start with the color scheme. I found the old colors fairly dull for the setting I wanted my poster displayed in: school classrooms. I chose an orange monochromatic scheme with contrasting brown and white, which I found would stand out when visiting schools for research.
Because the dimensions were up to me, I wanted to play with negative space, specifically between the figures at the top and the angles at the bottom. It would be printed bigger than a standard letter size, so it would continue to stand out on a busy wall.
Finally, I explored more iconography rather than the simple shapes from the first composition. I pulled elements from the first because I believe in honoring my original works and ideas, but wanted to combine them with my new skills. Using the clipping masks to bring attention to the numbers was very important to me, as if someone didn't read anything else on the page, I wanted them to read those. To keep with the school atmosphere, I played with paper chain icons to symbolize how we can all contribute to the foster care system. I especially loved the challenge of using them for data visualization as well.
Conclusion
I had a wonderful time with this project the first time I did it, but I love it more now that it has evolved. Everything feels so much more meaningful and thought out to really adapt to the environment I wanted it in. I'm thankful for the feedback from my professors to help me grow as well.
Sources:
https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/6244-children-in-foster-care-by-age-group#detailed/1/any/falxse/1729,37,871,870,573,869,36,868,867,133/1889,2616,2617,2618,2619,122/12988,12989
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/afcarsreport27.pdf
Image 1 - https://unsplash.com/s/photos/children?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
Image 2 - https://unsplash.com/photos/P5MXtYfgmmw
