Recently I found out about a fund-raising effort for Haiti earthquake victims specifically geared to designers called “The Haiti Poster Project”. Leif Steiner of Moxi Sozo organized a similar effort in 2005 for hurricane victims called “Hurricane Poster Project” that raised $50,000.00. This is how it works: designers have until March 15th to design and produce posters specific to the earthquake in Haiti or The Haiti Poster Project. Limited edition signed and numbered quantities of 25 -100 are to be produced by the designer and shipped to the project organizers and they will sell the unique offerings online with all of the proceeds going to Doctors without Borders. 

Having recently had major shoulder surgery on my right shoulder (I am right-handed) I wanted to participate but felt severely limited as my entire right arm was immobilized for the foreseeable future. But in an odd way it seemed like my limitations gave me more of a connection with what was going on over there. Both physically and emotionally, Haiti has major issues to overcome in the next few years and beyond.

So, I started working on concepts like I always have, making lists of words and phrases and images associated with the subject matter. One prevailing thought I had throughout this process was how to not lose the humanity in all of the overwhelming numbers of lives lost, injured and orphaned. That became the inspiration for the final poster. The next challenge was how to execute it with one good non-drawing left hand. Although I am an old-school guy, this is where the computer is your best friend. I found a good stock shot of some rubble and worked with the type in illustrator to get it where I wanted it using two basic fonts with minimal manipulation. Being limited in what I could do even using the computer (you’d be surprised how many functions require more than one hand on the keyboard and/or mouse) forced me to execute the idea as simply as possible. Here is the result:

Sometime after March 15 you should be able to purchase this and hopefully many other posters at www.thehaitiposterproject.com. Many thanks to Leif Steiner and Josh Higgins for giving designers and fans of their work a chance to lend a hand.

God bless.