LUCIA PERAZA

Brand Strategy and Ethnographic Research.

writing / design

Safehouse Disaster Preparedness Kits

Real life is scary enough - prepare for fake life instead.



The Safehouse Disaster Preparedness Kit is a publication originally produced for an Intermediate Graphic Design class in my third year at the School of the Art Institute as a project centered around creating a cohesive publication brand identity. It has since evolved to be a running yearly publication.

The disaster preparedness kits guide readers through survival tactics for fictional disasters, such as, what to do if you encounter a black hole, or if domesticated animals attempt a hostile take over.

This project focused on the fictional worlds in which these disasters could take place, and as such, world building was the first and biggest challenge to overcome. Deciding how much information to give the audience of the worlds around the disasters themselves was key in developing the aesthetic of each issue.

I found that there had to be an issuing body of the kits, and that this issuing body would have to be in touch with more specific organizations that dealt with each disaster, and all of these structural bodies needed a tone of voice, and an identifying system. This lead to the creation of several identity marks for various organizations, such as the Doppelganger Awareness Initiative, Praxis, The Society for Black Hole Prevention and Waffle Eating Contests, and many more. Below are a few of the marks I developed for these organizations:



Upon their subscription, readers are mailed a quiz which sorts them into one of four categories: Voyager, Scrapper, Stockpiler, or Sovreign. This determines the contents of their kits. Each kit includes a handbook and various tools to survive the disaster, however, information about the fictional creators of each kit or how to reach them is always redacted.




Pictured below is the kit for encountering your doppelganger, made in the Fall of 2018: