In the spring of 2010 I was invited by Goodby Silverstein & Partners to participate in a charity campaign for the French charity
AIDES. An international group of illustrators, comic book artists, and animators were selected to produce a series of comic strips, panels etc. for a campaign to raise awareness of HIV & AIDS and promote safe sex. The brief for this assignment was delivered via UPS from the agencies offices in San Francisco in the form of a 12 inch personalised condom packet. Inside a flat rubber disc was an illustrated super hero comic book brief, a call to arms and lowdown on the work of AIDES. Already, working with Goodby Silverstein was pretty special. Agencies out there if you want to fire up an artist for pro bono work take a leaf out of Goodby Silverstein’s book.
Their ECD is now Erik Vervroegen and I was aware of his work through a 2008 poster campaign again for AIDES illustrated by the incedible
James Jean. Vervroegen’s continous work with AIDES has raised it’s profile from a little known French organisation to the largest HIV prevention organisation in Europe, acheived via unpaid collaboration between agencies, photographers, illustrators etc. Guided by Vervroegen, AIDES now have an enormous presence in advertising as a result of these provocative award winning campaigns. Even if you’re familiar with the work of Erik Vervroegen and his teams it’s worth a google hit refresh for those razor sharp visual communication skills once in a while.
