Poster by Vancouver design student shows the person behind “the homeless guy”

Update: Mar. 7, 2010 – Due to concerns re: permission to use Jeff’s image for this poster, Jesi asked me to remove the image. A redesign is in the works…

Emily Carr design student Jesi Carson had a school project to create a poster commenting on an issue facing Vancouver. She emailed me last week to ask if I had any more photos of Steve, who I wrote about in 2007 in a post: What’s it like to squeegee cars? Just ask Steve…

Jesi said she wanted “to create something about ‘the person behind the homeless guy’ that we see every day.” She said she was inspired by the story of Steve, when she stumbled upon my blog a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn’t have any more pictures to offer – but Jesi found the story of Jeff to help convey her idea.

Jesi’s idea

Jesi writes about the poster on her blog, which I will quote from directly:

“I didn’t just want to state the obvious, which is that we have a homelessness problem in this city, but to go a bit deeper and remind us to consider the person behind the squeegee or the shopping cart or whatever it may be. Everyone has a right to exist, homeless or not, and everyone has a right to an identity. I think it’s wrong to lump all homeless people into the ‘hopeless homeless’ category and forget about it.”

Jesi’s post continues…

“The thing is, its only one small step to be aware of this issue. What good, really is this poster going to do for Steve? Or Jeff? Or any of the many homeless people in Vancouver or anywhere else in the world? Hope for Homes, the fake org which I invented so I could design the logo, well, it doesn’t exist. I’m feeling a bit torn about this right now. It’s not as if this poster will be getting any real exposure. It’s not as if it’s going to make a difference. So what’s the point?”

Look out for a series of individual portraits – and stories – and collaboration…