Right Brain Terrain: Alternative Motivational Posters

I started my academic career as an International Student at a South Florida Community College, which meant I spent a lot of time in various waiting rooms, waiting to speak to various counselors and advisers. The one in which I spent the most time had a murky carpet with a very particular aging-South-Florida-institution smell, brought on by decades of humidity eating into synthetic materials. On the wood-paneled walls they were, those motivational posters with various images of natural wonders, animals (eagles, dolphins and lions in particular), starry skies and celebratory mountain climbers paired with large words of inspiration, set in serif type. Thing is, they’re ugly, and have inspired a few too many viral parodies to even be effective any longer. In this new age when election posters are designed by street artists like Shepard Fairey, they just seem a tad bit too Bush-era if you ask me.

A few traditional motivational posters, a ubiquitous presence in doctor’s offices and waiting rooms everywhere.

Enter Frederic Terral and his company Right Brain Terrain, headquartered in Winter Garden, FL (maybe he too spent hours in musty waiting rooms), who has made it their mission to provide Alternative Motivational Posters (affectionately known as “AMPs”), that stray from the path of the predictable and aim to provide alternatives that are visually and contextually sensitive to the time in which we live.

Peace. Planet. Integrity.

Says Terral, “AMPs are subtle, loud, metaphoric, ambiguous, motivational, literal, symbolic, obvious, bright, dark, distressed, clean, colorful, black and white, surprising, predictable, unique, exciting, boring, inspiring… There are no rules — just gut. The process is a visceral one that is fueled by a yearning to positively contribute to society, for the sheer love of the creative process, for the poetically stagnant nature of posters, and for the deliberate art of contemporary graphic design.”

The posters are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled cover stock papers that are FSC certified and certified processed chlorine free (CPCF), using only vegetable-based inks. The tubes used for shipping are made from 70% to 100% post consumer recycled content. No virgin-fiber high-gloss paper, no shiny frames or fancy mattes.

Participate. Shine. Focus.

Terral, who designs all the posters, has been active in the creative field for over ten years, and done work for clients such as The Walt Disney Company, Holiday Inn Worldwide, Create Magazine, Darden Restaurants, MetLife, Walt Disney Imagineering, Microsoft, The Coca-Cola Company, McDonald’s Corporation, MedX Corporation, Jack in the Box, Pulte Homes Inc, House of Blues, Ripley Entertainment Inc, Blockbuster, OSI Restaurant Partners LLC. and a host of U.S. and international companies. About the posters’ effectiveness, Terral says, “AMPs are not intended to inspire one to get off the couch and run a marathon. We believe they serve as subtle reminders of our imperfect nature or of our personal victories. They can be our cheerleaders on good days and our coaches on bad ones. They are positive decorations for our occasionally monotonous lives. They are wall coverings to hide the hole you punched when your best friend crashed your car.”

Right Brain Terrain’s Alternative Motivational Posters can be ordered on the company’s website and at Supermarket.

Top posters: Patience. Courage. Teamwork.