OUGD503: "Water is life" poster competition

Found on the graphic competitions page with the deadline of 31st December. As I only saw this brief mid December and want to complete it in time it only gives me a few days so therefore this is quite a short brief. 

http://www.posterart-2-waterislife.com/en/water-is-life-20142015.html

Brief:

The competition is open to all students of art, design, graphic and communication design and architecture. Through the competition, the ZVHSK hopes to stimulate a wide range of artistic responses to the topic of “Water is Life”.

Students from all continents of the world are encouraged to make a creative statement supporting a responsible approach to managing water. The best 100 poster entries will be presented in a travelling exhibition that will be shown around the world in 2015. The “Water is Life” exhibition starts on World Water Day, the 22 March 2015, in Berlin, with the announcement of the winners of the competition.

Requirements: 

Content-related, formal and legal requirements

All posters have to include the following text:

• in German: “Wasser ist Leben”, or
• in English: “Water is Life”
• and the “Water for Life 2005–2015” logo

Further text, information or slogans can be added if desired.

Up to 4 posters can be submitted per entrant (as individual works or as a series). All posters must be submitted digitally (by uploading them online) and must meet the following requirements:

The entrant must be the exclusive copyright holder and author of the poster. Through the completion and submission of the competition form (to be completed online and submitted with the uploaded poster file!), the entrant confirms that he or she is the exclusive copyright holder and author of the poster.

Format: DIN A4

(21.0 cm x 29.7 cm, portrait or landscape format)Resolution: 400 – 600 dpi

Colour mode: RGB

File format: JPEG (Quality factor: 10 – 12)

Maximum file size: 15 MB

File name (This should be named as follows: first name, surname, country, date (year-month-day) and, if several submissions are made, please number them consecutively). Example: ‘John_Doe_USA_2014–11–08_No01’

Brief description of the poster concept (see online form)

- For my own design I need to work with colours that can be used in CMYK or RGB as they will show the designs online and in books/ prints. 

To understand what I need to produce in terms of concept I need to research into the reasons behind this competition.

"In Germany, the sanitation, heating and air conditioning branch works to ensure the safe provision and consistently high quality of water and sanitation. The high standard of drinking water hygiene in Germany testifies to the proven quality of national water supply and purification technology. For the ZVSHK, this is the motivation for initiating the poster competition. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a basic human right that applies for everyone, regardless of where they live in the world. This is what the ZVSHK wishes to promote through its student poster competition."

"Water is life

We recommended that you conduct thorough research, as the topic is wide-ranging in scope, touching not just on biological aspects of life but also on political and economic issues.

Water is a human right

Water is source of sustenance, a means of transport, a source of energy, the backbone of ecosystems, and an essential economic and cultural good. It is also not as plentiful as it may seem.

People cannot live without water

“Around two thirds of our bodies consist of water; some 75% of our brain is made up of water,” explains Bolivia’s UN Ambassador, Pablo Solón. “Water is the principal vehicle for the electrochemical transmissions of our body and helps to regulate the temperature of our body. It is possible to survive for several weeks without food, but it is not possible to survive more than a few days without water.” Nevertheless, millions of people have to survive everyday without clean water.

“Diarrhoea is the second largest cause of death among children. Lack of access to potable water kills more people than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.” Speaking in front of the UN General Assembly, Solón paused for a moment: “That was just three and a half seconds. Every three and a half seconds a child dies because it does not have clean water.”

According to the OECD, the ongoing growth of populations, urbanisation, globalisation and economic growth will lead to a 55% increase in the demand for water by 2050. By that time 2.3 billion people will not have adequate access to water, in particular in Africa and Central Asia. The United Nations University Declaration on Human Rights affirms the right to safe and clean drinking water – a right that is, however, not binding under international law.

Despite major advances in the past decades, 780 million people still have inadequate access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation facilities. It is not utopian to aim to provide everyone with safe drinking water and sanitation facilities.

To this end, we need competent and committed action from person to person in order to make water resources and a humane access to drinking water accessible to everyone."

http://www.posterart-2-waterislife.com/en/water-is-life-20142015.html

http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/

Not only do they build wells and help communities ensure they have permanent safe water they also hand out drinking straws which provide instant safe clean water. This brilliant product design is essential in disaster situations and those worst affected and most vulnerable, especially children. 

http://www.waterislife.com/sanitation

http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/children/

http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/economics/

http://www.carlospagan.com/portfolio/water-is-life/36

Unicef also had an interesting campaign which happened in New York. The stunt was to help raise money to give children clean water in the poorest communities. 

http://inhabitat.com/unicefs-dirty-water-vending-machine-offers-8-flavors-of-disease/dirty-water-vending-machine-1/

After reading reports like this on the affects of dirty water I didn't quite realise the long list of problems it caused and the diseases it can contain/ spread. 

"Most of these waterborne diseases aren't found in developed countries because of the sophisticated water systems that filter and chlorinate water to eliminate all disease carrying organisims. But typhoid fever,cholera and many other diseases still run rampant in the developing parts of the world."

http://thewaterproject.org/health

I also found another design which is incredibly clever but perhaps not as practical as the straw shown above. It is a drinkable book. 

"The Drinkable Book is a life saving tool that filters water and teaches 

proper sanitation & hygiene to those in the developing world.

Each book is printed in two languages on technologically advanced
filter paper, capable of killing deadly waterborne diseases. And each page
is coated with silver nanoparticles, whose ions actively kill diseases 

like cholera, typhoid and E. coli.

Once water is passed through the filter, bacteria count is reduced
by over 99.99%, making the filtered water comparable to tap water
in the United States of America.

The paper costs only pennies to produce, making it by far the
cheapest option on the market. Each filter is capable of giving
someone up to 30 days worth of clean water. And each book is
capable of providing someone with clean water for up to 4 years."

https://www.behance.net/gallery/16619527/The-Drinkable-Book

Projects like these are fantastic because they are educational as well as useful/ functional for their purpose. 

For my own poster for this competition I need to write down a few initial ideas which could work in making a statement based on the idea of "water is life".