TOW #23 – Visual: “The Future is in Your Hands”

Greenpeace

The Future is In Your Hands

Published in Smashing Magazine for the general public to see, Greenpeace keeps its advertisement simple but bold.  By managing the size of the fonts, keeping a consistent color scheme, and including simple images, Greenpeace effectively makes a call to action in order to promote their cause. 

By having different sizes of fonts, Greenpeace controls which words are more easily seen and assign greater value to different meanings.  The largest words on the second page are printed in all caps, boldly affirming “The future is in your hands” (38).  These words are then followed by the smaller words providing more background on climate change, and the link to Greenpeace’s website, but this extra information is less engaging to certain audience members uninterested in climate change.  Instead, the spotlight on a generic “future” can mean anything for anyone, so non-supporters who do not have an interest in climate change can still buy into Greenpeace’s message because every person believes in some kind of future for themselves.

Furthermore, Greenpeace maintains consistency throughout their advertisement to convey a sense of stability and honesty.  The words in all caps, keeping the message brief and to the point, while also matching their logo and publisher, Smashing Magazine.  The colors are simply natural forest green, bright grassy green, earthy brown, and sunny white.  Greenpeace is all-natural and honestly down to earth.

Finally, the simple images reveal the type of people behind Greenpeace.  The tone of the hands and slightly glistening finger nails imply clean workers who are open to working hard and helping the world.  The shadowed tree is the most realistic image on the advertisement, with slivers of sunlight contrasted by the shadows of its leaves and branches.  Every single leaf is shaded a different color to seriously emphasize Greenpeace’s focus on the environment and keeping it natural and beautiful.  The two hands support each other, in order to support the tree, and their position is slightly bent like a handshake, but also like a promise to keep the Earth safe and healthy, so that everyone’s future is safe and healthy.