Victor Cabrera: Winner of American Graphic Design Award (Student Category)


How do you convince someone to stop eating meat? Explaining the gruesome process young chickens endure before they appear on grocery shelves might do the trick. (Did you know that by week seven, chickens are crammed in cages for slaughter?)  This was Victor Cabrera’s award winning strategy for an ad series advocating vegetarianism.  The ad series was a part of the Graduate Design Studio 2 class, which he took in the spring of 2011 at The New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University.

Vegetarian Ads

Students were instructed to sell the idea of vegetarianism to an audience comprised mostly of non-vegetarians. They could convince, scare, heckle, plead, threaten, use guilt, reverse psychology, or wear them down, but the audience must become vegetarians.

After researching how various groups advocate for vegetarianism, Victor chose to use guilt. The campaign was so successful, it even worked on himself, “I have to be honest, after finishing the project I spent at least a week or so without eating chicken.”

This was the first time Victor chose to enter his work into a design competition. He believes entering competitons are a great way to get exposure, possibly to potential employers,“it opens up your mind to…approach a potential client or even apply to a company that you thought may not be interested in your work.”