Expressive Use of Graphic Design: Personal Issues-based Project

My initial ideas for this project, after much agonizing over what issue could possibly be clear-cut enough for me to create a poster for, was based around the media focus on Madeleine McCann's disappearance and the general hysteria it entails - I thought I could pick a current issue and then try to generate my own response to it, as my beliefs and passions are vague and changeable. The issue was supposed to be the hundreds of children that go missing every year, and the child sex trafficking which I am led to believe is rife all over the world. I wanted to generate some thought around where the hysteria stops, and where the line for childhood is drawn - when does it become okay for a person to be used for their body or traded in (never, I'm sure you would reply, but where is the line? There is a client base, all over the world, for prostitution and sex trafficking. Who are they?) And then I wanted to say, how do you separate a consenting adult from a victim?

I made a poster from around 130 images of children that came up on Google when I typed in 'missing child', along with some images of mail-order brides, prostitutes, erotic dancers or glamour models. The type was made up of Madeline McCann's glowing face, with the images of other missing children arranged in a grid and fading into darkness in the background.

I could go further with this and use the slogan 'Have You Seen This Child?' to ask a more general philosophical question about where the line between childhood and adulthood, and victimhood and invisibility, is drawn. I would like to incorporate my own graphic style more into this project, and actually I would prefer not to ask this sort of vague political question. My approach towards creativity is to veer away from politicizing it, to me they are on different planes. Politics is based on subjective information, whereas design, illustration and art is a straightforward expression of emotion. I will persuade if I am asked to, but my own political stance is apathetic and untrustworthy.

For this reason I may change my approach to this brief. I had great difficulty coming up with an 'issue' which I feel strongly about without questioning it - I would much prefer to stick to something more lighthearted and closer to home. I have no wish to start stirring up a dialogue on something I know nothing about.

Having seen the more lighthearted and personal approach of some of the other members of our class I am thinking about creating some sort of communication which will encourage young people in Birmingham to find the bands and musicians lurking around that are genuinely alternative and genuinely talented. I would like to create a 'scene' using only graphics and visual communications which will start to make people feel as though quality music in Birmingham has some sort of ground zero - obviously this would start off highly weighted towards friends of mine, but only towards that music I really feel deserves to be heard and rated. I would like to create a range of posters and an identity that starts to group together local music into the cream of Birmingham and involves the audience in a 'scene', and makes them feel welcome and drawn to local gigs, instead of confused and lacking in quality control. Can I create a new underground scene using only visual posters and communications?