Shreya Arora
The Good
Victim
Starter Pack
‘The Good Victim Starter Pack’ is a satire on the practice of victim blaming, and attempts to highlight that no matter how conservative, sanskaari*, or ‘good’ a victim is, society will always blame her more than the perpetrator.
* sanskaari (hindi): cultured
logue (rhymes with Vogue): people.
Used often in the saying 'log kya kahenge?' or 'what will people say?'
Inspiration:
While a staggering number of crimes against women are reported every day in India, the way they are reported is equally shocking.
Each day, several politicians, actors, eminent figures, as well as the common man imply that a victim of sexual assault could have avoided the situation by dressing more conservatively, reaching home earlier, or conforming to the image of a ‘good victim’ a little better.
Design Decisions
The entire project was visually inspired by vintage Indian magazine ads, in terms of illustration, typography, colour palette, and layout. This style was chosen to show how our mindset has failed to evolve with the times, and is stuck in the past. Since the project is a satire on victim blaming, the tone of voice of the copy is irreverent and ironic, and the posters are filled with visual and verbal puns. (Visual references above)
Since the aim was to have this project propagate mainly on digital media, I had to make sure the typeface adapted well to web as well as print. For this purpose, I used Superclarendon, since it was visually inspired by vintage type meant for letterpress, and optimised for web usage as well.
This project was organically featured by ScoopWhoop, BuzzFeed, and BBC.