Building Safer Communities
Client: City of Edmonton
Agency: Berlin Communications
Art Director: Paulina Van Vliet
Awards: ACE 45 (Poster Single, Microsite)
This is a pixel art illustration that Jude created for the City of Edmonton to support youth gang prevention initiatives.
Project Goals
The City of Edmonton, supported by the federal Building Safer Communities Fund, needed a fresh approach to gang prevention that moved away from the fear-based tactics of the past. Instead of shocking imagery, the agency wanted a campaign that focused on empowerment and agency. They commissioned Jude to create a visual language that spoke to youth through the familiar, "gamified" aesthetic of video games, transforming a complex social message into an engaging, choice-driven visual system.
Project Realization
Jude created an intricate pixel art maze populated with illustrated vignettes of life choices, contrasting constructive activities like learning how to draw comic books with destructive acts such as graffiti vandalism, which can increase the risk of involvement with violent gangs. The pixel art that he created was deployed as large-format posters at bus stops and transit hubs throughout Edmonton, serving as a "third space" intervention in high-traffic areas. The estimated impressions for the light rail transit and station posters was close to 13 million and the bus shelter impressions were over 57 million.
The posters also contained QR codes that connected to an interactive version of the pixel art maze, as well as a resource hub for families and schools. Both the print and digital campaigns took top prizes at the 2024 ACE Awards.
Creative Process
Drawing inspiration from the interactive overworld maps of 16-bit video games like Super Mario World, Jude envisioned the layout as a series of selectable paths where players decide which levels to engage with. He adopted an isometric perspective to map out these potential futures, allowing viewers to visually trace the route toward positive scenarios while actively steering clear of the negative ones. By utilizing the non-threatening, nostalgic visual style of retro video game graphics, the design invited teenagers to "play" the maze while waiting for their bus, reinforcing the narrative that every decision leads down a different path without feeling like a lecture.
Testimonial
“Jude was the perfect partner for this project! He was able to pack so much visual narrative into every pixel, weave them into a complex storytelling matrix, and turn what could have been a boring government safety message into something young people would actually want to engage with.”
