Creative Brief #2

Identification: USA bonds poster created by Joseph C. Leyendecker in 1917. Leyendecker was a popular illustrator at the time and was rather well known for his posters.


The project and the problem: Leyendecker was asked to create a poster that honored the role of the boy scouts for the Third Liberty Loan Campaign. He was to design a poster that beautified the role of the boy scouts and, in some cases, the army.


The client: Third Liberty Loan Campaign. It's not specific on who the person was that commissioned it, but it's probably safe to assume that it was someone in charge of the event. Could've even been a Scout leader for the boy scouts or, most likely, someone higher up.


The intended audience: The boy scout groups all across of America. Basically, it was generated at males, at the time. Those who might have been looking for some purpose in life or wanted to make the country a better place. Those that felt patriotic and wanted to do what they could to help service their homeland.


The core message: To honor the boy scouts and to give the public a sense of pride of the soldiers. Lady Liberty is also standing behind the boy to relay the patriotic theme of freedom.  Also, it was a method of creating symbolic characters to represent the theme of the poster.


The hoped-for outcome: To give people a feeling of patriotic pride and to convince the public that we need to fight in order to maintain the freedom of our country. In other words, it was sort of a way of convincing males in general to join the boy scouts or army.


What is the graphic strategy: Lady Liberty was given a somewhat idealized image, as well the boy scout. Leyendecker used a combination of symbolic visuals to illustrate the poster in a way that got the audience to feel a strong passion of sense of duty. Lady Liberty is also supposed to have a somewhat intimidating and powerful look given from the shield she holds and the sword she is about to take from the boy scout.