Title

Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Creator

Paul Young, Parkland College

Preview

Creation Date

2012

Description

Project: Kindergarten Calendar Client: United Way of Champaign County

Background: United Way is an international non-profit organization that addresses critical human care needs and creates long lasting change in communities around the world. The Champaign County chapter specifically funds a network of 67 programs and initiatives provided by 37 local non-profit agencies. In 1999, Bank of America Foundation donated $50 million over 5 years to support United Way's Birth to Work Agenda called "Success by 6." This public engagement campaign helps parents, caregivers and communities to create early learning opportunities for young children through awareness, education and action.

Objective: Since 2006, Electric Pictures has designed an annual "Getting Ready for Kindergarten" calendar for United Way of Champaign County. On a typical year, rights for artwork from an established children's book illustrator are purchased and used for the cover as well as some inside pages. Sponsors are solicited to help pay for the production cost of this calendar which are available free of charge to all parents of 4-year olds in Champaign County. In 2012, the local labor union became a major sponsor of the Kindergarten Readiness Calendar. The sponsor requested that the calendar utilize artwork with a "construction theme." Since this required the creation of cusrom illustrations, Electric Pictures was commissioned to create the original artwork.

Solution: In contrast to past calendars, Electric Pictures proposed creating a simple-to-execute style of digital art in the genre of Hello Kitty. A sample was produced for discussion and revised after client input. The final illustrations have the cute and adorable quality of Japanese kawaii culture designed to appeal to young children as well as adults. Over a dozen original spot illustrations were created in this art style illustrating that "to build a happy, healthy academically successful child you also need a strong foundation."