DYSLEXIA IS NOT A DISEASE
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
UNDERGRADUATE THESIS PROJECT 2012
For my thesis project, I developed a communication campaign for the Italian Dyslexia Association to help in the improvement of the life of children affected by Learning Disabilities, as well as the conditions of those who take care of them.
LOGOTYPE
The logo of the campaign contains both aspects of how a dyslexic often sees letters: the so-called "mirror effect" and the confusion created by a perception of movement. The colours match the Italian Dyslexia Association logo.
VISUAL IDENTITY
For the visit card I used a technique called Ombro Cinema to animate the logo. If the card is slided into the acetate pocket the central letters are moving.
THE CAMPAIGN
People often think about dyslexia as something innately negative, or they associate it with a concept of "lacking".
The decision of focusing the campaign on who dyslexic children are, instead of what they lack, has made me think about considering some research carried out in America between the 80's and the 90's (Landrum, 1989; Baum, 1994) which have shown that people affected by this disorder tend to develop a certain kind of propensity to creative thinking.
For this reason I designed a series of posters in which I associated dyslexia with the art world and artists such as Keith Haring, Georges Seurant, Andy Warhol (he was dyslexic too) etc.
The slogan "dyslexia is about viewing the world in a creative way" helps to transfer learning disability into an artistic dimension. In each poster the logo of the campaign becomes part of a work of art, acting even like a painting.
In this poster the reference to Albert Einstein, the most famous dyslexic scientist in human history, can be seen by the relativity equation "E=mc2".
The need for general understanding about how dyslexic people have a lot of other capabilities even apart from art has made me rethink the concept of creativity, so I extended it to other professions as well. For example, the writer or the scientist, both people who need creativity to formulate theories, organize experiences in order to know new things from them.
