Design students give AIDS Walk a facelift

Commuters riding the T may have noticed a plethora of eye-catching ads popping up to promote AIDS Walk Boston, which takes place June 1. The slick ad campaign was not the product of a high-powered ad agency; it was the brainchild of a pair of design students from the New England Institute of Art.

The students, Catherine Bergen, who recently graduated and works for a design firm in Cambridge, and Emilie Villmore, who will graduate in August, took part in an upper level design course in which students functioned as a full service design team and took on local non-profit agencies as clients. AIDS Action may have been the duo's first professional gig, but James Poulos, AIDS Action's assistant director of development, said that they are thrilled with the results.

"Right from the start we were just very impressed with the ideas the students had, the ideas [Professor] Mike [Goldberg] contributed, because it really preserved the elements of the AIDS Walk brand but took it in a new direction," said Poulos.

The ad campaign uses the AIDS Walk's iconic "four faces" logo, which combines the faces of four people from different backgrounds to show the impact of HIV/AIDS on a wide range of communities, but it surrounds the logo in a colorful collage of images that evoke the AIDS Walk, from sneakers to the "Obey Me" T-shirts worn by walk volunteers that direct walkers. The ads also contain photos of different groups of walkers with slogans explaining their decision to take part in the walk. Poulos said AIDS Action approached Goldberg's design class, called Blueprint Studio, at the suggestion of designer Will Cook of Sametz Blackstone Associates, who has worked with AIDS Action on designing their ads for the AIDS Walk since 2005. Cook serves as a professional advisor for the class.

Villmore said she and Bergen worked with AIDS Action to find the right set of images to catch the eye not only of new potential walkers but also of veteran walkers.

"We wanted to keep elements from the past. That way it wouldn't be too different. We wanted people to look at it who had done the walk in the past and know it's AIDS Walk Boston. ... We tried to come up with something completely unique they haven't seen before, but it would still be AIDS Walk Boston and completely recognizable," said Villmore.

Bergen said she hoped the colorful mix of images would encourage viewers to take a closer look at the ads and think about taking part in the walk.

"At one point I saw a younger couple looking at it and gazing at it and interacting with the poster, which is what I was hoping," said Bergen.

The duo's designs appear on all the posters, flyers, magnets, postcards, buttons, and T-shirts for the AIDS Walk. Goldberg said he was particularly impressed both by their designs and their sense of professionalism in working with AIDS Action.

"The two students who worked on this were exceptional, absolutely amazing. ... They kept up with every single meeting, design review, revisions, met with the clients, total communication with everybody. It was great," said Goldberg, who made his own contribution to the project by redesigning the AIDS Walk Boston website. The New England Institute of Art has also launched its first walk team for this year's AIDS Walk, although neither Bergen, Villmore or Goldberg will be walking.

Villmore said she still gets a thrill seeing her campaign in action on busses and subways throughout the city.

"I actually drive my friends nuts because when we're out in the city and we see one I say, 'Look, I did that.' And they say, 'We know,'" said Villmore.