Buscando Refugio
Buscando Refugio means seeking refuge in Spanish. Buscando Refugio was an exhibition at Temple Contemporary, which focused on informing the public about refugees seeking asylum from the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, by entering the United States’ Southern Border. Students from Tyler’s Graphic & Interactive Design department and the Temple Law Asylum Project worked together to create this project that would share resources for refugees in order to advance themselves in their asylum cases. It was important to showcase all sides and design for non-native English speakers.
Description
My design class was divided into three teams: Print, App, and Exhibition. I was the team leader of the Exhibition group and worked closely with Robert Blackson, director of Temple Contemporary. We proposed a wall showing different perspectives of those affected: families, children, LGBTQ+, women in domestic abuse cases, as well as border patrol agents. The exhibition also showed photographs and quotes from the Southern Border to portray the whole narrative. The project’s goals were to design a printed packet to disseminate pertinent information, as well as a mobile version, for each of the different personas mentioned previously.
This style guide shows different ways typography and color was used across all three teams. Nya Ridley's style tile was chosen to best represent all print and web content. Our classes needed a layout that would not only be well-designed/pleasing to the eye, but coherent to non-US citizens and domestic viewers. The colors were chosen out of a familiarity to refugees from the Northern Triangle by representing the main colors within their flags.
Although the exhibit targeted a different audience from the mobile/web team and print team, it was important that their piece of the project was also included into the making of the exhibit. An ipad was provided for the exhibit to display all interactive work the mobile/web team had created in their apps. The print team showcased their design on a special shelf. Overall the exhibit would work together to display the work of all three teams. Getting a look into the mobile/web and print teams gave insight into refugee struggles not included in the exhibit itself.
