Dangerous Game Report
Client: McGill University
Sector: Academic Research
Role: Designer, Illustrator
Tools: Illustrator, InDesign
Overview
Dangerous Game is a report by McGill university, UQAM and UOttawa about the effects of targeted advertising in games geared towards younger children. While there are strict rules about ad targeting in mobile games that serve children under 13 years old, many development companies don't play by the rules and continue to advertise to children. Additionally, some of these games don't follow the current regulations about privacy in gaming such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) (California, United States), Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and Quebec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (P 39.1).
For this project I wanted to create a playful atmosphere but one that tackles a serious issue such as children's privacy, so the drawings on the surface are very playful and childish, but looking at the details in the illustrations I wanted to show how adults who work in development and in tech are spying on children without their or their parent's consent.
To convey the seriousness of this topic I chose to use a muted colour palette with earthy tones. Whikle the illustrations might feel a bit childish, the palette conveys a serious tone for the topic of the research.
Additional to the cover illustration, I also created some spot Illustrations to accompany the text of the report. Academic reports tend to be long and have many sections, so the spot illustrations allow readers to know where a section begins and ends, and also help convey some of the ideas of the report in a graphic form.