Creative Project: The stigma of HIV
- Designer Jack Adams
The final project in the course allowed the student to select their own subject to research and design and the opportunity to create their own brief.
I felt the best chance of success of this project relied on my own personal interest in the topic. I also felt that selecting an issue that is current and culturally relevant with enough information to inspire, yet one that was not generally publicised was the way forward.
With this in mind I chose to create an awareness campaign regarding the stigma gay and bisexual men living with HIV receive from within their own community.
Campaign Posters
I created 3 posters where photography and type were heavily used, creating an attention grabbing image. Vivid colour was used to collate these words into a theme for each poster inspired by the original Gilbert Baker pride flag. Each colour stood for an ideal which united the community together, the idea was to show how this iconic symbol of gay pride and community cannot be working when HIV positive men are treated this way.
Example of Promotional Item
The campaign was to be promoted in selected gay bar venues nationwide on the 1st of December 2020, National Aids Day. Promotional items were designed in such a way that balanced the heaviness of the poster message with a little more lightness and humour, so as not to come across like a lecture or guilt trip, rather an opportunity of self reflection. These beer coasters displayed the hash tag “POZ4THOUGHT” that is the name of this particular campaign. The word “POZ” is a popular gay term for a person with HIV, this sounding like the word pause came together to create the phrase “pause for thought”, as people posted these coaster selfies with their friends the campaign’s hashtag will promote the message over social media. On the back of the poster explained the colour connection to the campaign.
Digital advertisment
To be displayed on the advert section of the gay dating app “Grindr”. I am well aware at the annoyance of watching adverts, especially when forced. So I made the campaign flash U=U fast so even if the user was looking away they would see a flash of vivid colour on their phone, giving more chance of success of promotion.