Domestic Violence ResearchCoral Welburn

IDAS

IDAS are a local charity based in York and North Yorkshire providing a wide range of services to women, men and children who are involved in a relationship which includes domestic violence. It’s a small local charity which is popular in York for those who are needing help. They are trying to raise awareness on the fact that domestic abuse isn't all about the violent side of a relationship, it includes far more things such as controlling behavior, constant criticism, threats and other physiological behavior that is all about controlling your life.

This is showing two posters that both link in together, one represents an unhealthy relationship, where as the other one represents what a relationship should be about. They’ve both been designed to link In together to inform people that they deserve one way, which is the nice way.

The heartbroken poster represents the fact that even though you may be in love, the relationship is always going to be broken as there is never any repairing things such as a heart as once its split, there's never enough making up that could possibly be an excuse for the behaviour taking place. Including such a huge crack in the first poster is a good representation for a barrier, because it’s a barrier between choosing to stick with the bad behaviour, or stepping over it onto the other side, which is where the second poster comes in, the second poster shows a full heart with no crack showing, so that’s the victim stepping over that crack and healing the heart by asking for help and allowing someone to help them leave the abuser and overcome the damage that the abuser has left within the victim.

I think both posters are simple and eye catching, instantly catching the eyes attention. The bright colours immediately divert your eye to words written inside the heart which is good because then you notice all of the other writing around the poster and it makes you want to read on to find out what exactly the poster is about. The colours give the poster a boost of happiness and a positive attitude, representing that they are there to guide you and help you regarding what a healthy relationship is. The colours are relating to the fact that as much as you may be in love and that you’ve set your mind to the fact you can deal with the harsh words, that you shouldn’t have to put up with it. This charity are there to support you and to help you get out of an abusive relationship.

I personally think the change of font for each individual word makes it stand out more and gives the words their own independence and boots their meaning even more. The reason for this is because I believe each individual word stands out even more looking slightly different to the rest of them because it means you take more time to read each one and think about what each word means and the impact it has on someone’s life.

That also is the same for using different colours for different words, however some words do have the same colour but link in to be the same thing but in different ways its put across. For example the words controlling and pressuring link because the abuser is controlling the victim and pressuring them in to changing themselves. Even though the colours and fonts are bright and colourful, the way the words come across still have a really large impact on the readers. Each word is straight to the point and blunt, so I believe putting into the heart and being blunt makes the readers think more because they want to reassure themselves that their partner isn’t like that, but when they realise they are, they want to be able to say that their partner fits into the second heart, so I believe it gives that push to the readers/ victims because they want to be able to describe their partner as been considerate and respectful towards them.

You don’t’ deserve this is a really blunt tag line and really stands off the page as it’s a dark colour been used on a bright and colourful poster, so it brings that darkness onto the page and brings the reader back to reality that not everything is bright and colourful in the relationship and that needs to change. However with that sentence been so dark it catches your attention which leads your eyes to read the small print on the poster.

I personally think that the idea of using a broken heart filled with words is a really good idea, however a good idea to use for a logo so that when people see it they think of my campaign. With my campaign id use it however id have it to be slightly darker with colours so that I don’t give that false representation that everything is bright and colourful, because the situation is horrible and it isn't easy getting away from such a manipulative relationship. I would include the words domestic violence in the logo, however I would change the colour purple as that’s the colour that is associated with domestic violence, so using a dark purple means that it will still fit with the dark theme, but will be enough of a change for the words to stand out.

I think this poster would be more successful if there were perhaps slightly a bit more information on it, for example a few statistics of women that have been in a relationship with constant criticism but have managed to leave due to this charities help, it gives the audience that boost of confidence that people are successful in getting away and that you can count on this organisation to get you away and support you.

This is a screenshot of the IDAS website which has plenty of links to different pages to find out information. As you can see I hovered over one of the links and it brings down even more links to different pages for you to be able to see what their history is as well as the services they offer. Everything such as numbers, courses and information helplines are included on this website, as well as a definition of what domestic violence is.

The internet is used at every single second of the day by millions of people and having a website is a must have necessity for organisations, especially for ones such as these about such a sensitive and serious issue as domestic violence.

This website is simple and everything can be seen and read clearly, however the only problem with this website is that it isn’t inviting and doesn’t have any link colour wise or even style wise to domestic violence. I think for when I do a website I would include things that would link in and have more of a feminine and personal touch to make people feel comfortable and welcome when looking at the website. The colours and the tone of the website is really bland and nothing stands out off the page. Its meant to be about making people aware, changing women’s attitudes on that domestic violence shouldn’t be stood for. Everything important is meant to stand out off the page and I don’t feel that this website has anything interesting looking about it, the same with the size of the writing, the images included etc. I just think that if a website was going to be created on such a bad issue, then things should stand out off the page as soon as the website open’s. For example that been an image of a women who is been shouted at or statistics of women who put up with things such as controlling behavior and the amount that have escaped from that lifestyle.

This poster is showing the writing on the woman’s face because she is suffering from domestic abuse, however its not through violence- its through words. Domestic abuse has so many different forms of ‘abuse’, its not all just about violence which is why I think this poster is a great example and a good way of showing how thousands of people suffer from abuse every day, even if they aren’t been abused through violence.

The writing on the face is the perfect way to show how the abuse is taking place, because this is her way of showing the pain she goes through 24/7, without physically been able to show it on her face, through bruises or cuts for example. This idea is really clever and really inspirational as it’s a unique way of showing forms of domestic abuse, she has a plain look on her face and the only way you are able to fully understand is if you read between the lines, which in this sense is literally reading between the lines on her face and reading each sentence that is written to understand the purpose of the poster and the reasoning behind the creation of it. Using an ink pen is a way of showing that its now leaked into her skin, there is now way she is going to forget it as its now a permanent reminder through her veins, which is why the reasoning for the poster links in well with the name of the group, victim support as they are supporting you through your tough times, not trying to erase it.

The colour of this poster fits in well with the reasoning behind it because there are mixes between light and dark. Using her hair to shape the poster is a good idea because it makes the background go dark and the writing on her face stands out against her pale skin because of the deep tone of her hair to shape her face and shape the way the writing flows across the face. I personally think something like this works really well with getting across to people as it adds a more personal touch with the actual handwriting been included instead of typing it out on the computer and editing It onto her face.

The tone of the poster fits well with cause and isn't trying to sugar coat anything and make anything easier for anyone. Its showing the audience exactly what happens in an abusive relationship and the look of the models face fits well as she is putting on a brave face.

This is a screenshot of the website for the charity refuge. This charity is about helping women and children who suffer from domestic violence. This means that their campaigns and the colours and vocabulary that will have been used will be very feminine and calming, so that it is inviting for the victims who are wanting help. This is something that is really important because you want the women and children to feel comfortable and welcome to view the website, so using calming colours and words is something that needs lots of thought and effort put into it. The website is simple in the way it sticks with one style and doesn’t change the colours throughout on different pages. The words are easily read on the white background and that’s something that’s important because the eyes aren’t distracted and will only be focusing on the words on the page.

As you can see I have clicked on one of the links which then brings up so many different links to pages created, so I'm showing just how well the website is set out and makes everything much simpler to find.

For example on the screenshot its showing all of the campaigns that this charity have created and put out there, so that you can go back and have a look at the campaigns and see the different ways that this charity have reached out to the victims. For my website I would want to create something this simple and appealing, as well as organised so that my target audience feel comfortable enough to visit the website and feel safe with the charity. Everything is displayed at the top that is needed and appears there on every page. This includes the helpline number which is in a bold and big font, which is easily seen. It also includes the variety of different social media pages they have included which then will broaden the different ways that the charity can target people, because thousands of people use a variety of different sites such as Facebook and twitter. So using something that is popular allows the charity to put their work out there so that they have more chance of reaching their target audience, especially teenagers and young adults.

This poster is designed and includes two charities on the bottom that are both about supporting women and children. The bold font used for all the writing is eye catching and really stands out on the page which is something that is needed for a poster. It instantly catches your eye and all links in together so that you read on thing first and instantly want to read on. Its not something that includes too much information which is good because it gets straight to the point and doesn’t put people off from reading it due to having too much heavy vocabulary. The way that they’ve put ‘call us.’ with the full stop really makes it punchy and snappy which makes you want to listen to them, so the charity including such a strong attitude really will be put across well because the audience will believe that they have to put a stop to it and accept help from the many charities out there.I really think that this poster will be successful due to the modern edge that has been included in the design. Its designed and will be successful with a younger target audience because it includes a bright and bold design and isn’t too serious in the way its been designed. Having the dots on the background makes the speech bubble stand out well which then catches the eye.

The use of white and pink links in with both refuge and women’s aid charities because they both have a colour scheme of pink, used to lighten the mood and put the feminine touch on the issue. The colours used brightens up the poster and puts a positive attitude on it so that it doesn’t bring people down. The use of dark against white at the bottom of the page makes the helpline number stand off the page well which Is the most important thing because you want the victims to ring in so the number needs to be the boldest thing on the page, which it is and its easily linked with the tagline because the speech bubble has a line at the bottom which points straight at the number, so its all linked in well together.

This poster is slightly different and includes much more information that the rest of the posters that refuge have designed. But this one is designed to be about the warning signs of domestic violence in a relationship, so the attitude and tone of this poster will be deeper and more serious than the rest.

The tag line of the poster is put in a bold font with a vibrant pink colour so that it stands out off the page well, which it should because it’s a serious piece of information. Its telling you that two women a week escape domestic violence, which links in with the information because its telling you that every week two women are killed, which is their escape from it all. So you shouldn’t ignore the warning signs and you wont end up like them women that did.

The font used for the large pieces of information is very simple and easily read, but I personally don’t think that posters should have large amounts of writing on because it doesn’t appeal to people and that’s mainly because they don’t want something that goes on, they want to see something short and snappy. So I think this poster would have been better with the image and just the tagline, as well as the writing at the bottom about not ignoring the warning signs. The image used at the top links in well with what the poster is all about and I think it’s a good image to use because it really hits the heart and make you think about how you don’t want to be one of those women lied down like that. If they were to do something like this again I think they should just include the most important warning signs and shorten it down, that way more it will appeal to the target audience more.