TOMS End Gun Violence Together
Art direction, concept, design, artwork and execution for #EGVT campaign. Designed postcards that were distributed at events, retail and wholesale stores that customers and supporters signed to send to Congress urging them to pass universal background checks. In the end we drove across the country in a 35 foot RV to hand-deliver 750,000 postcards to Washington DC. I painted a mural in the backyard of our flagship store in Venice, CA and created artwork for the RV and posters for events. All original illustrations and typography for a good cause.
The Challenge
TOMS, a one-for-one shoe company, is on a mission to end gun violence. How can we tell this impactful story as if this initiative fits seamlessly into our current giving model — to use business to improve lives. We knew this story had less to do with product, and more-so to let our community know that we are expanding our giving model to battle some of today's most important issues. In order to get the word out about this campaign, we knew copy and visuals would need to be loud - and incorporating artist/activist work would achieve this ambitious creative direction.
We had 100+ murals pop up around the country, reinterpreting our logo in their own artistic way in support of this initiative. Murals were painted by both big and small artists, interactive murals were created at community events, and I painted my very own mural in the backyard of our flagship store in Venice, CA.
The Road to Washington DC - hand delivering 750,000+ postcards to Congress.
I gave our Venice mural a bold new look to wrap around a 35 ft RV. For a mobile pop-up shop concept — a Mercedes Sprinter Van would follow the RV across the country and have an interactive experience inside where you can shop our website on the touchscreen and digitally sign and send your postcard to Congress.
We put together a modular events package that could easily be customized for every space we planned on taking over during the longevity of the road tour. This included three roll-down banners, and hundreds of illustrated posters to serve as backdrops for stages and photo opportunities. This offered a consistent and well-branded space no matter where we were.
We created an events package that could easily brand a custom space for any event we were hosting along the roadtrip. I created custom artwork for ancillary posters that created a photo-op & backdrop at events, and designed roll down banners and a seamless backdrop for easy on-the-go stage setup.
We had an incredible group of volunteers help hand-deliver each and every postcard to Congress that day. The result was an impactful community event, and universal background checks were passed by the House of Representatives shortly after. My artwork for this campaign has been archived in the Library of Congress alongside centuries of historic works of art that have contributed to positive change in our country.
I created the graphic below that visually represents the number of postcards we received from each state. This graphic was projected as a wall backdrop behind our performers and speakers at our final rally.
Team: Meghan DeRoma, Creative Director. Dan Hall, Associate Creative Director, Kendall Pilgrim, Senior Copywriter.