Twenty schools from around Australia took part in the 2011 NCPIC Poster Competition, generating almost 100 fantastic, artistic and original entries.
This year's judging panel (which included a Creative Director and Designer; a Graphic Designer; an alcohol and other drug Counsellor; and the CEO of a leading young peoples’ mental health organisation) was impressed with the standard of the entries and the original responses to this year's theme of how cannabis use may negatively impact upon sporting performance. To sum up the standard of the shortlisted entries, one of the judges commented: “Some stunning bits of thinking, diversity in all its glory!”
Congratulations to our winner, Bridget O’Halloran from Clonard College, Victoria.
We are also pleased to be able to display this year's runner up entry. The entrants’ explanations of their posters have been included below.
A2 posters of the winning entry ‘Get your kicks on the field. Not on the sidelines’, are now available to order from our online order form, free of charge.
The Winner
Get your kicks on the field. Not on the sidelines.
Physical health, fitness and sport are important in maintaining a healthy body and lifestyle. Sport aids in maintaining one’s fitness but also wellbeing, it’s also a great opportunity to socialise and have fun. However, cannabis and its effects can impact on one’s health and wellbeing. I chose to emphasise a concept of choices and consequences as they might be in a football match. I hope to encourage cannabis users to consider their choices deeply and how ‘using’ might impact on their lifestyle and health. I also want to encourage other individuals to consider sport as an outlet and social activity. Whilst employing the ‘game’ concept, my deep intent is to suggest that cannabis use is not a game, but rather a serious and life impacting matter. I want to encourage individuals to follow their dreams and achieve their goals, whether that be on the sporting field or not.
The Runner Up
Don’t let cannabis hold you back
In my poster ‘Don’t Let Cannabis Hold You Back’ I had one student bending over like he was puffed and he was catching his breath. This is the main image I created my design around: to represent the effects of cannabis use on the cardio respiratory system. While in the background, there are four other people running off into the distance on an oval. I positioned them there as a semiotic code to say that non-cannabis users go further in life. There is lots of colour hovering about the non-cannabis users like there’s nothing holding them back so that they can run freely, but the boy hunched over is held back by this grey area filled with cannabis leaves. The images are tied in with text: the main being ‘don’t let cannabis hold you back’ which I thought was a strong message that gets straight to the point.
