Graphic Design Project Situation

Los Angeles is a highly fire-prone city, at high risk for both wildfires and structure fires. MySafe:LA is a nonprofit fire safety organization based in LA. The organization gives fire safety presentations at schools. After the assemblies, the organization hands out documents hoping that the students will (a) read and remember the info, and (b) bring the documents home to help family members make their homes fire safe. The reality was, the pamphlets were being ignored: neither kids nor families were reading the hand-outs. 

Graphic Design Project Solution

MySafe:LA engaged Beth Bacon as project manager and graphic designer to create a more memorable and engaging give-away. Together, we decided to try something different: a fun, interactive comic-style book called Franklin Stays Safe. Ths story  looks and feels like any book they’d be eager to read and share with their whole family.    

To create the content, I worked with award winning children’s author Jenn Bailey and illustrator Kristin Varner. Together we created the story of Franklin, a fun, eager dog who guides us through his family home, offering fire safety tips. To make the story interactive (and therefore a more immersive learning vehicle) we created cut-outs for students to attach to the pages.  

Another detail of this project design  is that we took into consideration the high population of non-native English speakers in LA, as well as the rising number of children with ADHD and sensory issues. For the non-native speakers, we made the story a graphic-novel style comic. For those with sensory issues, we chose a calming yet appealing gray-and-red color palette for the internal pages. This reduces the distractions of a full-spectrum color palette and allows students to focus on the important words and pictures.  

Graphic Design Project Result

 Today, when the team at MySafe:LA visits elementary schools, they distribute these high-quality books free to each student. Instead of discarding them, research shows that a large percentage of kids add these books to their home libraries. The quality of the design, storytelling, and illustrations also make these books interesting to other family members, achieving the goal of bringing fire safety messages to a wider audience. 

With these books, more families in LA are inspired to check their fire alarms, designate a Safe Meeting Place, and “stay low and go” when smoke is present. LA experiences more than 10,000 fire incidents LA each year. These books help save property—and lives.