Sunday, September 27, 2009

VA: Brainstorming


Contacts:
Maria Torrez Anderson
I spoke with Maria and had a nice conversational interview. At first I was apprehensive and nervous but after speaking with her for a bit I loosened up. Here are some of the questions that I asked her:
1) What is your position at SADD?
Maria: State Coordinator, which there are 25 across the US.
2) When was the organization started?
Maria: Early 80's. The organization was started because a hockey player died when a drunk driver crashed into him, and his teammates started Student Against Drunk Driving. Since then they have changed it to Students Against Destructive Decisions.
3) What types of marketing strategies do you use?
Maria: SADD national office deals with most of the marketing with Online Newsletters.
4) What is the best way to decrease drunk drivers?
Maria: Drinking age not lowering to 18, and staying at 21.
Educating the youth at an early age, with correct factual information, no bias info.
5) What types of things can graphic designers do to help fight drunk driving?
Maria: KDOT hires designers to do poster campaigns and what not. Very graphic imagery is what they are usually doing. Also to promote the law, and what the consequences can be if you get caught.
6) What type of strategies do you use in making people aware of this problem?
Maria: We do a leadership Summit, in which there are 22 teams with youth and adults that come to the conference. The focus on an Action Plan which focuses on underage drinking.
7) What age group is your organization geared towards?
Maria: Highschoolers grades 9-12
Chris Laudando:
I sent Chris an email saying that I was interested in his Breathalyzer machines, and wanted to ask him some questions and he sent me an email back saying:
Ryan,

Thanks for your response. I appreciate your participation in this good cause. I would be more than happy to answer some questions from our point of view. As a suggestion, perhaps we could discuss some of the things Alcohol Alert does that go far beyond simply placing machines in bars and restaurant.

Currently we are working with a non-profit organization that offers rides to individuals that have been drinking. Not only does this company drive the patron home, but also their car. This organization includes Alcohol Alert as part of a program offered to the bar that protects their liability as well as the patrons in the bar. Bar patrons use Alcohol Alert to know if they are intoxicated, and then contact the non-profit company to drive them and their car home.

I think that you will be hard pressed to find a better pro-active approach to preventing drunk driving and saving lives than Alcohol Alert. Please send me a list of questions and I would be happy to answer them and have a conversation with you about your project next week. If you secure the $15,000 funding to implement Alcohol Alert in your area, we would give your cause premium pricing considerations, as we often do in situations like this.

Thanks and enjoy your weekend,

Chris Laudando

I sent him an email back with questions and he never responded back. BLAH!











More Idea sketches.

This poster would be hung in the bathrooms of the bar, to reinforce of designating a driver.

When all of the stickers are removed it reveals a silhouette of a person in the center of two [ ].
1st Rapid Prototype: Sticker poster


1 comment:

thenewprogramme said...

ryan, i'll start from the concept maps and go upwards.

i find your psychological map quite useful and i believe many of those excuses are very believable. the whole section of "it's okay, i'm not drunk" could be really good to address. you could research how long it really takes to sober up after, say, three beers. or how long it takes to sober up after eating some food. kind of like the whole "wait a half hour after eating to swim" thing your mom would tell you. if that develops into a snappy phrase (think "click it or ticket" but not as cheezy), it could be a nice direction.

i like your first two sensor-related ideas, and think they could work if the technology is developed, but we need to be more pragmatic for this project, unfortunately.

regarding the poster, i think the interaction with the piece is good. the statistic is good also, but i'm not convinced there is enough here to make people pay attention to the poster any more than another drunk driving poster or ad. it looks like a lot of people get killed by drunk drivers -- is this in the course of one day, month, year? is it across the u.s. or in the k.c. metro area. a numeric percentage would be helpful to reinforce the visual. also, i can't get the "dc shoes" logo out of my head.

i would say show this to some people and see what they think. but continue to try other ideas. developing a multi-media or multi-whatever would help to reinforce your point, and i think if you get specific about one of these reasons it would be helpful. if you want to use this stat you're using in the poster, how can you make that even more real to bar-goers? i think about that truth t.v. ad where all those people had a "die in" on the street outside of a major tobacco company headquarters.

the huge problem with your issue is how to break past the "it won't happen to me" problem. and to do that you have to prove them wrong in a very personal way -- that it will very likely happen to them.

alternately, you could address that other section of your psychological map and promote the idea of waiting around before driving. if nothing else, that would make people less drunk if their body has some time to process the alcohol.

i know it's hard to work with this subject matter. you are getting somewhere, i know you are. it just might not feel like it right now. keep flexing your brain and write down anything that comes to mind and we can talk more wednesday. grab me to remind me.