Welcome to My Neighborhood
By VML, Kansas City, USA
For Youth Ambassadors
Winner in category Design & Branding
In subcategory Identity and Branding - Books
Project Description
Many Americans live privileged lives. They can’t relate to the horrors inner-city youth endure daily. To help America empathize, we used inner-city children’s real-life experiences of drug abuse, violence and hunger to create a children’s book from everyone’s childhood.
The book, “Welcome to My Neighborhood,” consisted of three illustrated bedtime stories, each telling a different child’s story — one of drug abuse, one of violence and one of hunger. Each horrific yet true story came to life using the child’s own words, but was put into a format everyone could relate to. It was a book written by children, yet not suitable for children.
We distributed the book to key policymakers, funders and media outlets asking them to donate their time, money and power to help put an end to stories like these.
The book, “Welcome to My Neighborhood,” consisted of three illustrated bedtime stories, each telling a different child’s story — one of drug abuse, one of violence and one of hunger. Each horrific yet true story came to life using the child’s own words, but was put into a format everyone could relate to. It was a book written by children, yet not suitable for children.
We distributed the book to key policymakers, funders and media outlets asking them to donate their time, money and power to help put an end to stories like these.
Agency Solution
“Welcome to My Neighborhood” is designed with the same size, illustration style and design elements of a children’s storybook. At first glance, you think it is a storybook from your childhood, but that quickly changes once you open it.
We worked with our illustrator to develop each of the book’s characters. Many characters came directly from research photos of inner-city homes, families, crime scenes and crackheads. Once we had our characters, we could start telling the story.
The book consisted of three illustrated bedtime stories, each telling a different child’s story — one of drug abuse, one of violence and one of hunger. Each horrific yet true story came to life using the child’s own words, but was put into a format everyone could relate to. It was a book written by children, yet not suitable for children.
We worked with our illustrator to develop each of the book’s characters. Many characters came directly from research photos of inner-city homes, families, crime scenes and crackheads. Once we had our characters, we could start telling the story.
The book consisted of three illustrated bedtime stories, each telling a different child’s story — one of drug abuse, one of violence and one of hunger. Each horrific yet true story came to life using the child’s own words, but was put into a format everyone could relate to. It was a book written by children, yet not suitable for children.