SWA Recruiting Poster
Internationally renowned Landscape Architecture firm SWA was looking for a way to increase interest in their firm among recent college graduates through a poster that would be hung on the walls of landscape architecture departments across the nation. They knew that many students misperceived them (SWA) as a massive company that was old, stodgy, and far from the front lines of creativity. This poster was designed to show how far from the truth that idea was by appealing to the students through an honest, and oftentimes unspoken, portrayal of how students really feel when they graduate.
Myself having graduated a little over a year prior to working on this project, I was still all-to-familiar with what it really feels like to finish school and begin to look for jobs. For this piece, I wanted to tap into that feeling of honest exhaustion from hard work and years of preparation and planning. Beneath the photographs, shot by Nathan Perkel, of the glossy, worn-out, recent graduates is a running list of honest questions being asked by recent graduates: “Will they like me?”, “Will my boss even know my name?”, “Will I ever see my family?”, “Will I be respected?”, “Will I be a worker bee?”, and “Will I ever see the sun?” among others.
The poster (16″ x 20″) was received with strong reaction by both the client and the colleges to which it was sent. While a few people were appalled that I would portray students this way, most saw the honesty and humor in it. For me, any time that I can generate this strong a reaction from a piece, it is a success. The work caught the attention of the intended audience and generated the curiousty and interest it was intended to. In all, it was a success. And besides that, I’ve never really offended and “horrified” someone with my design before, so that was a little exciting.