By Brandon Brown
News Editor
CSUDH Art and Design Department students will host a series of events this month featuring social-awareness campaigns.
Working in five small groups, seniors enrolled in ART 447 with department Chair Michelle Bury, will be designing a series of advertisements for different mediums, such as animated GIFs, print and social media, among others.
The project, “Design for Social Change,” will feature themes, including technology addiction, tolerance, sexual assault, STD-prevention and abusive relationships.
“This project will allow students to become aware of social issues they’re interested in and follow a design from conception to execution,” Bury said. “They will also work with peers and, by presenting, will get direct feedback from their designs.”
Part of the project will also include each group hosting an on-campus event this month to share their campaigns with other Dominguez Hills students.
One of the groups, primarily focusing on sexual assault, partnered with university police and will feature mannequins, which represent victims feeling objectified and valueless.
“We’re raising awareness about sexual assault on campus and making people aware of the types so people know it,” said Maria Tellez, one of the group members.
The group also plans to pass out stickers and integrate their campaign with Snapchat and university police to provide students additional resources to combat the issue.
Another group focus will be society’s addiction to technology, featuring a display using design sketches, line work and a yellow brick road, to raise awareness of our obsession with devices and make us aware of what we’re missing out on when we’re plugged in.
“We want people to really enjoy the campus and the people around then, not just (be) tied to their phones,” said Christian Jimenez, a member of that group.
One of the other group’s aims is to raise awareness of tolerance, calling their project “No Labels.”
“We want to promote acceptance and tolerance on campus,” said Kiana Seva’aetasi, a member of the group. “We’re having people choose a stereotype that they’ve been called, and they’ll wear a label with that on it, showing that they don’t necessary live up to that stereotype.”
The fourth group will focus on abusive relationships in a campaign they call “No Love,” designed to raise awareness and to show students the difference between healthy and potentially dangerous relationships and where to go to get help and additional resources.
The fifth group will focus on STD-prevention in a presentation called “Swipe Safe.”
The Tinder-esque campaign will highlight the dangers of so called “hook-up apps” like Tinder and the underlying risks of unprotected sex.
The group will also partner with the student health center for its “Sex-O-Rama” event, which is aimed at stemming sexually transmitted diseases.
“We want to educate people on STDs, especially on campus,” said Vannica Svay, project member. “We want to make this a comfortable topic, not a taboo subject.”
The respective campaigns will be featured this month in front of the Loker Student Union and will be presented at Student Research Day next spring.
