Shop Safely Campaign
We were honoured with the challenge to create a social distancing and shop safely campaign for my home town of Stockton-on-Tees, for use in all the independent shops in the area, as well as high-impact signage for the High Street and Castlegate shopping centre, instructing residents how to shop safely. We brought the campaign to life on social media, by creating animated versions of the designs to share online.
We felt an earnest responsibility to other residents of the town to make the designs as memorable and accessible as possible. My client, Stockton BID, was also clear that they wanted the messaging to stand out, challenging me to come up with a concept guaranteed to catch the eye of local residents during the lockdown.
After bouncing some ideas around, an original concept began to form. We wanted the posters to provide people with concrete imagery that could be used to visualise the danger of Coronavirus, while also illustrating the recommended 2 metres distance between shoppers.
We wanted to create a campaign that could be understood by adults and children alike, with a higher level of accessibility and inclusivity for all. As most of us have found ourselves stuck in our homes during the lockdown, it occurred to us to use household objects, of approximately 2 metres length, such as a bathtub and a two-seater sofa, as a way to visualise the safe distance. This concept has the benefit of being easier to visualise than the less tangible ‘2 metres’.
We used illustrations of dangerous animals in household settings to visualise the very real danger of bringing coronavirus into our homes, and this conveys the message with gentle humour, without negating the serious nature of the message, and without resorting to using fear tactics. The designs can also easily be updated as the government advice eases and changes.
We created a series of eye-catching animations to share on social media, guaranteed to stop the scroll! Viewers are rewarded when they watch through to the end of the animations, at which point the striking imagery is explained in the statement "Coronavirus is Dangerous. Don't Bring it Home With You". The resulting "ah-ha!" moment is key when it comes to increasing the memorability of any message.
Owen and I believe that the best way to instruct is to entertain. It has been shown that alarming messages often have the opposite effect, causing people to look away from a design that makes them anxious. On the flip side, several studies have shown that humour increases the retention of information by up to 70%. This way, the reward for paying attention is the resulting smile. And besides, during such a troubling time, humour is necessary and in short supply!
This series works brilliantly as memorable posters, but what about creating a fun activity to educate kids about keeping a safe distance? The solution was to create downloadable colouring sheets for children, as a way of educating them about social distancing, without frightening them.
In addition to these social distancing posters, we designed high-impact signage to provide in-depth information about staying safe while shopping in Stockton.
It was a privilege to be involved in such an important project and to have this opportunity to highlight the importance of not just social distancing, but to demonstrate the real responsibility graphic designers hold as communicators. It's essential, as both a designer and a client, to understand what graphic design really boils down to; packaging a message in a way that sticks.
“Over the last couple of months, like most BIDs and local authorities, we were looking at a reopening strategy for Stockton Town Centre. I needed something a little more creative to suit our independent businesses.
Having worked with Abby before I knew she would be the best person to go to as her work is always first class. All I needed to do was to provide the brief, asking if we could be a little quirky and fun with the message, and Abby and Owen did the rest. The result is awesome and we are very proud to display the messaging in our businesses around the whole of the town centre. ”