This piece is roughly based on my This I Believe essay; it conveys the message that you should not live at the expense of others. My PSA is an illustration of three separate browsing tabs with a phrase in each search bar. One reads, how to help others, another reads, meeting expectations, and the final one reads, tips on pleasing people. All tabs are open to a search engine named 4U which hints at the message to live for you. The design of the search engine is an angled, wine colored oval with a black oval underneath. There is a drop shadow placed on each tab to add dimension to the piece. White clouds with a low opacity cover the sky blue background and are all placed with a drop shadow effect as well. At the top, there is the PSA text, Stop searching for other people's happiness in white and again in black on top and offset down and to the right. The idea of this design was to demonstrate searching for happiness in the most modern and literal way. My audience has no direct trajectory, but for those who feel as though they are losing themselves trying to help other people, it is a reminder to step back and find their center.
This piece was made using Adobe Illustrator. I used the pen tool, the rectangle tool, the ellipse tool, and the text tool. The pen tool aided me in creating all the detailed parts of a real browsing tab as well as the clouds in the background. The rectangle tool was extremely handy in creating the bigger parts of the tabs, and I used the direct selection tool to round out the corners. The ellipse tool was used to create the graphic of the search engine, small browser extensions, and the buttons in the top left corner. Adding the drop shadow effect to the clouds and tabs brought my PSA to life.
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