The School of Public Health building gets new look through project with The Skin You’re In
Video walk-through of new graphics at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
The Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine just got a refresh! Colorful, new graphics have been added to the windows on the first floor of the school's building (Tidewater) at the corner of Canal and Lasalle Streets in downtown New Orleans.
The graphics serve two purposes. The first is to relay the message of The Skin You’re In, a school-based multimedia project that aims to produce positive change to help close the unjust health gap plaguing African Americans. Secondly, these new graphics create privacy for students taking classes in the school’s gallery space outside the Diboll Auditorium. Most classes at the school were moved to the first floor of the building to relieve strain on the elevators while the school population makes the effort to physically distance themselves during COVID-19.
The Skin You’re In (TSYI) is the brainchild of the school’s dean and health equity expert Dr. Thomas A. LaVeist. TSYI uses film, print, and digital media to communicate the message that health inequity is a crisis that should concern all Americans. The project shines a light on the racial health gap that harms every facet of Black American life, regardless of social status.
For the window graphics TSYI reached out to the Tulane School of Professional Advancement, in particular the digital design program, seeking two graphic designers to work with TSYI on a variety of media. Tamzen Jenkins and Keagan Krauss responded to the request. Jenkins already has a post-baccalaureate certificate in graphic design and is currently studying interactive design. Krauss is also studying interactive design. Together they developed the graphics for the building.
Kay Chan, a current student and the creative design and content team lead for TSYI, managed the communications between the school and the graphic designers for the project. She departed TSYI a few weeks ago to complete the degree requirements for the Master’s in Public Health, which she is on track to earn in December. Abimisola (Bim) Anibaba, another MPH student, is TSYI’s new creative design and content lead. Lacey Allen, TSYI communications team lead, asked the team if they could design the windows, and she acted liaison between TSYI and the school. MPH alumna Nahdi Bropleh, TSYI program director, supervised the creation of the art, sitting in on design meetings and working with the designers, content team, and the school's communications department. The graphics were printed and installed by Uptown Graphics.
"TSYI aims to educate and empower people about the importance of Black health and COVID-19’s effect on the Black-American community in the Greater New Orleans area,” said Chan. “The messaging on the Canal Street windows encourages the adoption of healthy behaviors in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. These windows encourage all who see them to actively produce and push for meaningful change in their daily lives and in the community."
Additional photos of the graphics:
