This poster provides information about the danger of concussion in sports. It is organized into a number of different rectangles, and each rectangle conveys a different point about concussion, with a loose progression from the top to the bottom. The goal of this poster is to keep kids safe during sports by educating people who may be in contact with them, but may be unfamiliar with what to do when a head injury occurs. In most cases this likely includes parents and coaches (assuming that athletic trainers or school nurses have already been educated).
This poster attempts to accomplish its goal by starting off with a scary statistic about head injuries in kids, and then proceeding to give information about how to help kids avoid becoming a statistic. It urges adults to have kids wear helmets, and also provides information about concussion symptoms, and what to do if a kid sustains a head injury. I like the simplicity of the graphics, and the way it doesn’t provide an overwhelming amount of information, which makes the information it does provide more accessible, and thus more powerful. However, in some places I found the information a little too simple, to the point where it became overly vague. For example, the “scary statistic” mentions TBI, not concussion, which is in the title, yet fails to define TBI as traumatic brain injury. It is unlikely that adults who are learning about concussion for the first time would be familiar with the acronym TBI. It also does not provide information about when an athlete should not only be removed from play, but should also seek immediate emergency help, which seems like an important oversight, and it doesn’t indicate what might happen if a player returns to play with a head injury (which has serious health consequences). Overall, I think this poster does provide a really basic education concussion, and keeps things simple, which is important for audience comprehension, but needs to provide a little more information in some places to truly be successful.