Can you help with a calendar theme of peace?

Question

Each year we have area designers each design one month of our company calendar and this year we wanted a theme of something relevant to the times, to terrorism, to ethnic/sectarian conflict, to hope for eventual resolution of the world’s enduring conflicts. Sounds serious, I know, but we could position it a peace calendar.

I need help articulating these thoughts in such a way that the designers will create something relevant and in tune with the theme.

I’m sure designers have opinions on the various struggles we are all going through internationally and opinions on possible solutions. The solutions are, obviously, not simple, and involve trade-offs at the individual and group levels, which are not easily coordinated and made, trade-offs between immediate self-interest and working toward the long-term greater good. I wonder if designers might be able to communicate some of these trade-offs graphically.

We would want to avoid cliché type peace symbols, like multi-race children, peace signs, doves, etc. We’re looking for them to dig a bit deeper. We need work products which people from all backgrounds could agree are truly meaningful motivators of world peace.

Clarification: I'm not asking you to design the calendar or pick images... we will have 12 different graphic designers dothat (each designing a different month).. What I need is a way to explain to them the theme.

Answer 1

Let me throw this one out there...

Pick a range of different cultures, and then figure out, though research or just asking people if they are available, what to them would symbolize peace--just on a day-to-day level. Then take that and use a different culture for each month. For example, a picture for Mexico may have a big family sitting down to dinner; India might have a person in meditation; France might have a few friends sitting together in front of a sunset.

Answer 2

Try "light and shadow." Look up yinyang concepts of duality how good cannot exist without the presence of evil and vice versa. I'd steer clear of politicizing the images too much but the general idea is to illustrate that it's light that create shadows and shadows that define the objects being illuminated.

Answer 3

Could you feature a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a short bio outlining how they furthered the cause of peace, one for each month?

Answer 4

How about one of those pics I've seen of Middle Eastern kids playing soccer in the street, with armed men, whether military or militant, looking on?