JUST DO IT

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Media design, “design that carries information,” is everywhere. It’s in billboards, television advertisements, posters, websites, and everywhere else one can imagine. It’s so imbedded in our way of life, we forget to recognize it. Take, for example, that Nike check the entire world has been familiarized with for the past 30 odd years. This winged goddess of victory has millions across the world sporting the famed logo. Regardless of socio-economic class, race, ethnicity, religion, and age – many share in common “the check”. So, one of many reasons I chose this ad is because, through its aesthetics and use of a prevalent logo, it makes a bold statement.

The composition of the ad is very well balanced. Aside from the large red check, its use of color is muted. The typography is simple: black, bold and sans serif. All these traits are what lie in the attractiveness, despite the boy’s action or setting, in this picture. A sickly kind of gray, with subtle tints of yellows and greens, make up most of the color. The black boy and the black writing, separated by the large check that’s discreetly placed almost in the center of the two, make the picture pop. The significance of the piece is the boy’s acting out the message in the text, and the fact that, symbolically, both share the only two colors in the whole picture that match. Given the criticism from human rights organizations that Nike has faced since 1996 due to its continuous employment of children in sweatshops, it’s not surprising that the artist chose a boy who resembles one of many destitute Pakistani children who toiled in the Nike, Inc. Pakistan sweatshops.

“Just do it”, we’re urged day after day, time and time again. With such persistently persuasive salesmanship, I can’t blame the kid for listening.