INSIDE THE DESIGN APPRENTICESHIP: "IT'S BALTIMORE VERSUS COVID"
Now that there’s a vaccine available for COVID-19, the trick has been convincing people to take it. From nanomachines to COVID itself, people have speculated about what the vaccine is and whether it will actually work.
In fall 2021, Wide Angle Design Apprentices collaborated with organizations across the city to promote COVID-19 vaccination amongst youth. Alongside OSI-Baltimore and Baltimore City Health Department’s “It’s Baltimore Versus COVID” campaign, we, the Design Apprentices at Wide Angle Youth Media, helped to design social media posts and print material to inform students and their families about what the vaccine does and why they should take it. Our partners also included MICA’s Social Design student VALUE ambassadors, the Y in Central Maryland, and No Boundaries Coalition.
Each member of the apprenticeship was tasked with designing one of the requested deliverables below:
TikToks
Tia Thomas created TikToks promoting the vaccine.
@baltvscovid What do you call your grandma? Let us know down below ⬇️🥺 Created by @Info at Wide Angle M. Supported by OSI Baltimore. @bmore_healthy @BmoreVaxxed ♬ original sound - Yo
Sticker
Sydney Smith designed a sticker promoting the TikTok and Instagram pages for VALUE youth ambassadors to hand out at events.
Postcard
Aiara Manning created a postcard for people who have already been vaccinated to learn more about ways to continue to stay safe and spread the word to family and friends.
Instagram Testimonials
I was designed testimonials with photos of Baltimore City students and quotes about their vaccine experience.
When it came to designing the testimonial post for instagram I took inspiration from an existing “It’s Baltimore Versus COVID” graphic which featured their logo in the top right corner and FAQ in the right corner and a line between them. I did something similar, but I replaced FAQ with VAXX and inverted the colors. The background was now dark with light text rather than the other way around to compensate for the fact that photos would need to be featured in the design, and per the brand guidelines the photos should have a gradient made of their colors over it. I also assisted Tia with her TikToks by creating a card to display at the end of each one highlighting it as a part of the overall “It’s Baltimore Versus COVID'' campaign and highlighting the contributions from Wide Angle Youth Media.
Photoshoot
The Design Apprentices photographed 14+ local influencers that were used for a larger ad campaign.
Baltimore City Health Department and MICA’s Center for Social Design created the Baltimore Versus COVID 2.0 campaign in collaboration with Wide Angle Youth Media, The BMORE Brand, VALUE Baltimore, and 14+ different local influencers. The goal of the campaign was to refresh the original Baltimore VersusCOVID campaign for a younger audience (18-34 year olds). The campaign was created in close partnership with VALUE Baltimore’s Young Men and Youth Ambassador groups. This project was funded by OSI-Baltimore BEVI (Baltimore Equitable Vaccination Initiative).
Deetranada campaign graphic - an example of how the influencer photographs were used for campaign graphics.
“Being able to work with influencers of which I am a personal fan of, such as Deetranada, was such a memorable and fun experience. Having photos that I took on a billboard or bus stop makes me feel very proud of myself. With this project I feel as though I made a difference in my community and grew in my craft.”
MEET THE AUTHOR
De’Shaun Fortune, born and raised in Baltimore, has been studying graphic design since age 12. Before Graduating from Baltimore Design School, De’Shaun studied graphic design for 7 years including participating in Wide Angle Youth Media’s after school Design Team. Now in College majoring in Art and Interactive Media he is one of Wide Angle's first Design Apprentices with the goal of using the skills he has developed to promote unity and acceptance.
In 2019, Wide Angle was the first employer in Maryland to participate in Arts2Work, a federally-registered Apprenticeship program for media arts and creative technology careers sponsored by the Alliance for Media Arts + Culture. This spring, Wide Angle spearheaded the development of a new Arts2Work career pathway in Maryland for Graphic Designers, De'Shaun is the inaugural apprentice to hold the position in the state.
If you’re interested in having De’Shaun design social media posts for you, email him at deshaunfortune@gmail.com with the subject line “Freelance Opportunity”.