Remember AIDS?

The following posters were kindly donated by James Lapides to Elizabeth Resnick, Professor and Chair of Graphic Design @ Massachusetts College of Art and Design who has organised the Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDS Awareness Posters 1985–2010.

Bellow are four of my favourite posters.

AIDS, the Killing Bite of Love
This is my favourite, simply because it's such a strong message. You don't need to be able to "read art" to know what the poster is trying to convey: Warning, a penis without a condom is as deadly as a snake!

The use of red and black adds to the drama and emergency of the warning. These colours are often used in nature as a warning, such as the red-back spider and red-bellied black snake.

The poster image depicts male genitalia with the head of a snake about to strike. Employed here as a symbol to communicate the deadliness of the AIDS virus, snakes can deliver deadly defensive bites without giving prior notice or warning to their unwitting victims. Although a snake may be defending itself from the encroachment of its victim into the snake's immediate vicinity, the strike is unannounced and deadly.

Design: Anton Beeke
The Netherlands, 1993

Life Saver
I love the use of the boat life boy in this poster. Again, it's an easily recognised symbol merged with the image of a condom that tells us that a condom could save our lives.

My favourite part is simply the creativity behind the simple image. I love a poster that gets the message accross but tells us a little about the creator and how they're mind works. Great stuff.

The poster depicts a photograph of a condom with the addition of red striping to suggest a boat's ring-shaped life preserver. This was a self-initiated project for the designer to express his philosophy on the role of design for social and political advocacy—a positive approach against negative HIV results.

Design: Yossi Lemel, Photography: G. Korisky
Israel, 1993

Protect Yourself. The Only Way to Stop AIDS Is You
I enjoyed this poster because it had a little more going on in it than the others. It uses the positions of the naked bodies to form a skull, which is a warning in it's self. Against the waving black drapes the skull morphs into Death, which is a statement, more so than a warning. Using the naked bodies as it does warns of the acts that can lead to Death tracking us down.

It is a combination of these three images and the combined metaphor that I like so much and it's just a very attractive poster to boot.

The poster image plays with a series of paradoxes to capture the viewer's curiosity and interest. Here the classic sign of danger, the skull, depicts the perils of the AIDS and HIV virus. The paradox is in the series of nudes positioned to form the image of the skull. The aesthetics of the nude figures draws the attention of the viewer while the skull symbolizes the consequences of unprotected sex.

Agency: TBWA/Paris. Creative Director: Erik Vervroegen, Art Director: Marianne Fonferrier / Stephanie Thomasson, Photography: Eric Traoré, inspired by a photograph made by Philippe Halsman in 1951
France, 2003

Use Your Head—Wear a Condom
I laughed when I first saw this, not that it's a laughing matter. In a similar fashion to the "Live Saver" poster 2 posters above. In this poster, the words "Use your head where a condom" gives you a heads up, before you see the picture of the penis with a brain for a head. I see this as, "Use your head" not your penis to think.

Again I love the creative genius behind this, to relate the head of the penis to the brain and also position it so that they'd have similar dimensions, curves. It really drives home the message not to think with your dick.

The poster was created for the Good 50 x 70 poster competition and was exhibited in Milan, Italy.

Design: Joe Scorsone and Alice Drueding
USA, 2008

I did a little search and found this so called good50x70 website and competitions for 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010. There are many categories, some of which are AIDs or STDs. Check them out.