Los Medanos College has long been a place that values humility and respect, but with new posters and banners around campus, students and faculty alike will now have a daily reminder of those core principles.

Placed around various areas of LMC, “A Community of Respect” banners showcase the values of compassion, humility, inclusion, civility and empathy through images of hands. This powerful campaign was launched only a week ago, but the planning began quite a while before hand.

“Doing a respect campaign had been considered in the past at LMC, but nothing had come of it,” explained Barbara Cella, the Director of Marketing and Media Design at LMC. “I decided that now is the perfect time to do something to support our community in the area of respect.”

Cella worked alongside Eloine Chapman, Marketing Department’s Senior Web Designer, and Sabrina Kwist, the dean of Equity and Inclusion to get the project underway. The creative genius of the project however, was LMC student Gabriella Santos.

As a student intern for the Marketing and Media Design department, Santos has had lots of previous experience with media design at LMC such as her designs for food pantry fliers, drama posters and school billboards.

When the task of designing campaign banners was given to her, Santos began to think of a unique way to convey the schools message of respect.

“I thought to myself, ‘what if we had it look like dictionary images?’” said Santos when discussing her first thoughts with the banner. “From there I looked up photos online and saw that many images had hands — I decided to stick with it.”

Once she had a design in mind, Santos worked on her hand illustrations for a month and her hard work proved to be successful.

“Gabriella did a beautiful job with what started out as a fairly ambiguous project” said Cella. “I’m so proud of her and am delighted to feel our efforts are making a difference at the college.”

These posters, viewed by students everyday, act as a reminder to treat everyone on campus with respect. While these posters are targeted towards the LMC community, they also act as a statement towards the hostility of people across America.

“It is a timely notion, given the divisive discourse and contentious climate that has been observed and experienced across the country,” said LMC President Bob Kratochivil in a recent online press release. “The campaign also complements District Resolution 1-S, which denounces hate and violence and affirms our institutional commitment to equity, inclusion, and social justice.”

For those at LMC who have felt excluded, disrespected or alone, Santos has hopes that those people can find comfort in knowing that LMC supports them and wants to make a change.

“I hope this has a big impact on them,” said Santos. “I want them to know that they’re a part of something bigger.”

This campaign has only been at LMC for just over a week, but the contributors to the campaign are hopeful that it will flourish.

“We hope to use the campaign in different formats all over campus,” marveled Cella. “I can see how it could take on a life of it’s own.”