Why should you be a vegetarian?

I played around with a few sketches for my eat meatless campaign idea. I like the one with the pig the best. I think it's the least confrontational.

Sketch angst

I have been thinking about sketches. (As opposed to doing sketches.) I'd like to create a campaign about vegetarianism. I've been a vegetarian for years, but when people ask me why, I don't have a good answer. It's personal. I don't judge others for their eating choices. I certainly know it's hard to make good eating choices. So, as I've been pondering how to clarify my own motivations for not eating meat, I've also been thinking about how to create a campaign that makes people think without turning them off. We get extremely mixed messages from PETA to the Beef Council, for example. And I don't think either of those camps convince the other side of anything. And there are health claims on both sides of the aisle. I'm not even convinced that humans aren't supposed to eat meat, and I don't expect my kids to be vegetarians. But I would at least like to persuade people to THINK about where the food they eat comes from. So here are some of my thoughts of what might work, and hopefully some of them will become sketches.

A factual approach:
(Note, I haven't verified these 'facts")
* In the US alone, 500,000 animals are killed for meat every hour.
* African countries - where millions are starving to death - export grain to the developed world so that animals can be fattened for our dining tables.
* If we eat the plants we grow instead of feeding them to animals, the world's food shortage will disappear virtually overnight. 100 acres of land will produce enough beef for 20 people but enough wheat to feed 240 people.
* If everyone in North America reduced their animal food consumption by just 10 percent, the grain we would save from animal feed could be used to feed all of the hungry throughout the world (Earth Save)
Tagline: something to the effect of eat vegetarian, it's better for the planet

Dispelling myths:
* Vegetarians don't get enough protein.
* You can't be an athlete, bodybuilder etc if you don't eat meat.
* It's too hard to give up meat. Won't ever feel satisfied.
* Vegetables don't taste good. Healthy food tastes yucky.
Tag line: something about eating vegetarian is for everybody

A more emotional approach:
* Animals are our friends, not our food.
* showing respect for life by eating lower on the food chain
* Eating with a clear conscience
Tag line: it's the right thing to do.

I would love feedback on whether any of these ideas are worth pursuing. What would make you give up eating meat, even for ONE meal?

Saul Bass project

This is my execution of my favorite Saul Bass sketch after class critique. I still have a few more tweaks to make but here is what I have so far. I really love the top treatment of "bass" even though by using that type size I had to make everything else 9.5 size type. I chose a simpler design than most of my classmates, and I am so impressed that people cut out the images and did other adventurous things with Illustrator. I am still really scared of that pen tool.

Getting better... slowly

I spent the weekend creating sketches for the Saul Bass project and despite a small amount of confusion (does only TWO type sizes mean that if you use the word "bass" in large type for a graphic element that everything else has to be ONE type size? I decided the answer was "yes" even though it made creating a headline difficult.) managed to do something acceptable, I think. Here are my three favorite sketches for the Saul Bass project.