The 2008 NCPIC Poster Competition generated some wonderfully creative, innovative and thoughtful responses from over 130 high school students from around Australia. The judging panel was impressed with the standard of entries received and the wide range of ideas and concepts used to portray the message in the brief, namely, the importance of seeking help if you or a friend have been experiencing problems with cannabis.
The criteria that the posters were judged on included creativity, design, originality, and effectiveness in conveying a message on the topic.
Congratulations to our winner, Amanda Olsson of Blackburn High School, Victoria, whose poster ‘Marionette’ really stood out and conveyed a powerful and effective message about seeking help. Congratulations also to the other finalists. Extracts from the entrants’ explanations of their posters are also included.
The winner
Marionette
“I wanted to show how cannabis makes you lose control over yourself, like a puppet being manipulated. Her blank face represents how she has hidden away from those around her, not showing her true state. I used a fairly simple design, because I thought it needed to convey the message without distractions. The cannabis leaf is made to represent a puppeteer’s “cross” that controls her actions.”
The finalists
Don’t dice with your life
“My entry is to make people aware of the effects of smoking cannabis. For the people who are using it or maybe thinking about it, the poster is set out as the well known game “snakes and ladders”, either climb the ladder for help, or slide down the snake to either prison, effects or impaired judgement. The ladder leads to help, help from NCPIC.”
Not thinking - sinking!
“I made sure that my poster was eye-catching with contrast. It is not supposed to be literal but it just means that your life will go downhill... I also liked the ad how this drunk guy falls into the ocean and tries to swim to the surface but he drowns. It turns out that he was swimming down not up. It really got the message through and I hope to do the same.”
My cannabis poster
“My entry shows a girl, called Lily, who is worried about her older brother because he’s addicted to cannabis. So she looks up the helpline on the internet, gives her brother the number and phone and after a few weeks everything is fine.”
Smoking cannabis can affect sex life
“Because of the attitude of...teenage males (in particular the stereotype that use cannabis), I decided it would be hard to portray a message that this group would take seriously. After extensive research I discovered that smoking cannabis can affect a male’s ability to perform sexually/their sexual drive... Being able to perform well sexually is very important for a male, therefore I decided this would be the most appropriate message to portray through my poster as it would be realistic for teenage males. My poster portrays the image of the top friends on Myspace of males. I chose Myspace because I know teenagers of this generation.”
