DESIGNER

Juliana Griffin

PROFILE/DESCRIPTION

The problem I tried to solve using this poster is vandalism in the boy’s bathrooms. Bathrooms are often targets of vandalism due to their intrinsic privacy from authority, as one of the only places on campus that is only used by students. At Albany High, locks being removed, mirrors being broken, and stall doors and urinal dividers being wrangled off their hinges has resulted in administrative action and punishment of the (male) masses, although only a fraction of people who use the boys bathrooms are directly responsible. As punishment, the bathroom doors to the hallway are chained open, or perhaps just locked so no one can use them at all. This poster aims to connect with people who plan on using the bathrooms without doors, and consequently without privacy. Privacy is integral to vandalism as it protects the vandals. Additionally, other unsanctioned activities like smoking also demand a certain level of privacy, and without it those activities are less likely to occur. By placing a poster with large eyes that seem to follow you as you move, and asking the question “Do you feel watched?”, everyone entering the bathrooms is forced to confront their own discomfort. Vandals realize that property damage will be more difficult now, and people who would have been smoking now have to find a new location. Finally, people who do neither of these things feel the undeserved punishment, and maybe will be motivated to complain to the administration, or even their peers who are responsible. Overall, this poster identifies and intensifies preexisting feelings of discomfort and lack of privacy when using the boy’s bathroom.