• As I approached this project, I sought a format that opened the accessibility and usability of the information. I wanted as many people as possible to be able to dig into the incredibly human submissions. The HopeFear Project website allows people to read the hopes and fears of thousands of people from around the globe and lets people add their own hopes and fears to the collection. The site is also a platform for discussion of the content, promoting personal introspection for everyone who participates.

      The aesthetic of the project is in a sort of “default design” style. Pairing this default style with candid, black and white holga photographs of random people produces a raw tone to match the raw, uncensored nature of the anonymously submitted hopes and fears.

      As one searches the data, it becomes clear that the hopes and fears of people from nearly every background relate in some way. I hope that this project will allow people from all over the world to bypass their differences in race, religion and culture and connect on the very base experience of human hope and fear.

    • The HopeFear Project stemmed out of an assignment for an Information Design class. The assignment was to analyze and design proprietary data. Because the task was inherently cold and clinical, I wanted to explore something human that everyone could connect with in some way.

      I created an online questionnaire asking people to share their hopes and fears. After obtaining 100 responses, I used the data to create an exhibit for the my University's Library. Weeks after this project was complete, I checked the survey to see if anyone else had responded. To my surprise, nearly 3,000 people had participated.

      As I began looking for a subject for my BFA project, I simply could not ignore my collection of hopes and fears, which has continued to grow to this day.

      Special thanks to my supportive wife Lindsay, my fantastic instructors, Adam Gedeborg who handled the back end production with help from Jeremy Bowen and Bryan Williams, my parents and family, my fellow graphic design students, and you, for spending some time with this project.

    • This website was designed and coded by Evan MacDonald. Programming by Adam Gedeborg with help from Jeremy Bowen and Bryan Williams.

      Data was gathered by Evan MacDonald starting in June 2009.

      The typefaces used include Courier New and Helvetica/Arial.

      The photographs used in the background of the site were taken on the streets of New York City and Boston by Evan MacDonald using a 35mm Holga. Click here to view a selection of the street photographs taken for this project.

      This BFA project was completed as a part of Evan’s undergraduate studies in graphic design at Brigham Young University-Idaho.

    • The HopeFear Project is just a young gun with a plethora of room for growth, and grow it will. As we worked to create a website that allows users to interact with the data, we quickly realized that we were just scratching the surface of possibilities. This project will continue to grow in coming months, making for a richer approach to the search and analyzing of the HopeFear data.

      Perhaps the most exciting thing about the future of this project is that the collection of hopes and fears is only going to keep expanding. The HopeFear database is a living thing and we can’t wait to see what happens as more and more people find their way to the project and share their hopes and fears with the world.

      If you’d like to make a suggestion for how we can improve the project, send an email to feedback@thehopefearproject.com.

      Thank you. We hope you enjoy the project.

    • Privacy

      We at the HopeFear Project will use your email address for the sole purpose of identification and the occasional email update (about 3-6 times per year). Your information is kept in our secure system and will never be sold or given away to anyone.

      The submission of your hopes and fears is 100% anonymous. We will never ask for your name in association with the submission of any hopes and fears.

      The information requested on the comments page is treated like all the information gathered elsewhere on the site, with complete respect for your privacy. Your email address is kept strictly private and will never be share with anyone.

      Terms for Submission of Hopes and Fears

      The submission of your hopes and fears is 100% anonymous. We will never ask for your name in association with the submission of any hopes and fears. Once your hopes and fears have been submitted to The HopeFear Project, the information will be kept by The HopeFear Project and may be used for the varying purposes of the project including sharing the hopes and fears, gender, age, time and date of submission and geographic location with visitors of The HopeFear Project website. Persons submitting hopes and fears to the project should note that the form used to submit these hopes and fears also gathers the general geographic location via I.P. address. This is not meant to be an exact location and is in no way associated with any physical address nor is it possible for us or any other parties to somehow discover your exact location. The geographic location information is intended to be a study in relative location of all participants in the project.

      The design, photographs, programs, code and all collected data and information displayed on TheHopeFearProject.com is intellectual property with copyrights claimed by The HopeFear Project.