May 25, 2016: Shell Oil Spill Dumps Nearly 90,000 Gallons of Crude Oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
For my final project in my Poster Design for Social Justice class, I wanted to talk about offshore drilling and the massive impact it has on our environment. Spilled oil can harm living things because its chemical constituents are poisonous. This can affect organisms both from internal exposure to oil through ingestion or inhalation and from external exposure through skin and eye irritation. Oil can also smother some small species of fish or invertebrates and coat feathers and fur, reducing birds' and mammals' ability to maintain their body temperatures.
Allowing this to happen year after year is criminal and negligent, and I wanted this poster to open up discourse on other alternatives for the sake of our environment.
For the design, I wanted a stark B&W image of a dead fish drenched in oil. Thus, I went to the market and bought a dead fish. I created the oil by mixing vegetable oil, corn starch, black ink, and soy sauce. I approached my classmate/photography extraordinaire Drew Althage to quickly shoot the photo. Within one class period, the tagline was added and a hauntingly beautiful poster was created.
Final poster design.
Additional design.
Drew behind the scenes.
