The assignment was to select an international cause that can greatly benefit from an increase in exposure. Once a topic was chosen an organization dealing with the issue needed to be selected and an awareness poster designed for both the cause and the organization needed to be created. During the summer a story broke about Raju, an Indian elephant that had been held in captivity for over forty years. Upon his rescue by local authorities the elephant began to weep uncontrollably upon realizing that he was being set free. Because of the strong emotional impact this event had on me I decided to cover elephant captivity.

When designing the image I decided to use a multimedia approach to help give the image extra visual impact and hopefully draw people into it. The image was drawn on several pieces of torn paper that was later recombined with the other pieces using a water and charcoal mixture to help mold and combine them. The intent behind this was to create an extra layer of depth and texture. The eye of the elephant was made from an old copper washer. The image focuses in on the elephant’s eye as a way to try to humanize the animal and help people connect to the subject.