Brian Cohen
Professor Klein
Art 3058
Gift Bag Analysis
The New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation was founded by New York City
Firemen to not only help fellow firemen who are injured on the job, but also injured community
members. It has grown to receive national recognition and burn victims from all over the
country are flown here to New York City for treatment.
Firefighters are more often than not large people. Their job is to work fast and do what
they have to do to save lives, with little in between. I kept these ideas in mind when designing
the gift bag.
The type, along with its meaning, is big and blunt. Words take up a majority of the bag,
however I kept it minimal. The font size is large like firefighters themselves, and the meaning is
straight to the point, just like their job when the call comes in. Helvetica was used as the
typeface for a simple look. Also, Helvetica is one of a few typefaces that looks great in all
lowercase.
I chose to stick with one image. The way I had the type set up was powerful enough to
take up space without unnecessary illustrations to take away the viewers attention. The image
is vector points to symbolize a firefighter’s helmet.
The beginning sketches for the back included just black and white. When designing in
the computer I chose to incorporate red instead of black to lighten up the piece. Since the bag
is for charity, I did not want a dark vibe to go along with the piece. Red gives it more of a strong
firefighter look and isn’t as sad looking as if I were to use black.
The contents of the bag include a gauze handle and red tissue paper with burned edges.
The gauze symbolizes those hurt in fires who benefit from the purchase of the bag. The red
tissue paper symbolizes fire, and the burned edges represent the dangers of fire and the
devastation it can cause.