Brief
Your task is to rebrand feminism. Consider the term and find a way of changing the public’s perception of it. May have to formulate a new strategy in order for it to survive and be meaningful to a contemporary audience without the perceived stigma it may have.
Solution
The research I conducted informed me that the main issue with feminism was the stereotype and stigma that it carried. I asked numerous people what they believed feminism to be about and many replied with confused, distorted judgements, therefore I realised this campaign needed to educate the public and remove previous misconceptions. The project also needed to steer clear of stereotyping and being judgemental. Feminism isn’t just for women, it is about gender equality for everyone. People aren’t aware that it can work for men as well as women. The solution was to create an awareness campaign which would initially educate the public of what feminism stands for today. Previous feminism campaigns have changed societies and opinions by its most extreme elements, I wanted to move away from this and bring feminism upto date. I felt it would be unsuccessful to use the phrase ‘feminism’ throughout the campaign as it has such a stigma attached to it which often alienates people, so instead, I used ‘gender equality’. The campaign is broken down into three phases to ensure it is correctly understood and perceived.
Step One
Educating
Step Two
Awareness
Step Three
Support
BRANDING
The logo was developed using the symbols for male and female and combining them. The joining of them shows the coming together. There is no hierarchy in the logo so nothing is seen as better or more important. The plus mark, taken from the female symbol, emphasises the fact they are coming together and everyone being united. The arrow mark, which is taken from the symbol for a male, has been rotated to portray it going forward, showing that this campaign is moving on and looking towards the future. The logo is black and white to enfore the fact that it is gender neutral. The design throughout the rest of the campaign is simple and stripped back which reinforces the honesty and simplicity of the brand. The colour palette used throughout is black, white and yellow, which doesn’t hint towards a specific gender.
AWARENESS
At the start of the campaign a series of stickers will be randomly placed around the city in very public places such as bus stops, bins, lamposts, traffic lights. e.t.c. This aims to generate interest of the campaign by sparking people’s natural curiosity.The campaign includes a series of different posters which focus on specific facts relating to gender equality. They aim to raise awareness of the issues by educating the public whilst moving away from the aggressive approach that is often associated with feminism. The posters will be placed around cities in very public places such as; bus stops, shopping centres, football stadiums, schools, also in the workplace such as doctors surgeries, hospitals and other areas where the posters will have added significance due to them directly relating to the location. They will also appear in magazines and newspapers to generate more awareness.
The posters use friendly, warming imagery which invites the viewer and encourages them to engage. The use of the question and the tick box forces the viewer to subconsciously answer the question. By directly questioning the viewers morals they are forced to confront the issue and form an opinion. These issues are not widely talked about therefore it is a case of making the viewer aware. The text on the posters highlight the same attributes and by placing the posters in close proximity to each other it forces the reader to question why there should be a difference purely based on gender.
The posters all highlight different facts based on gender equality, in the bottom corner is the statistic backing up the information on the poster. Along with this is the phrase ‘a ........ is a .........’ which highlights how a parent is a parent or an employee is an employee and that gender doesn’t matter and shouldn’t make a difference.
SUPPORT
Once the campaign has raised awarenes it needs support from the public. This can be achieved by the use of the website, here you can find out information, donate and buy products which will enable the campaign to build momentum and raise money. The website is filled with information regarding gender equality and the campaign. People can find out more facts and information about the issues and find out how it affects them.
The website also allows people to buy products to support the campaign. The merchandise range ‘this is for everyone’, consists of t-shirts, bags and stationary that are suitable for anyone. The t-shirts come in one size
fits all and none of the products are gender specific. Products are sold online to generate awareness and encourage further support from the public. There is also a page for people to donate online to support
the campaign.
There is also a facebook, twitter and instagram page that people can like and show their support. Using the #thisisforeveryone, people can share pictures and stories which they believe relevant to fighting gender equality. The aim being to tap into the large online community and increase awareness of these issues through this poweful medium.
I have also created a short animation which highlights the aims of the campaign and shows how it can work. The design of the video is very simple and the type is kept uncomplicated so that the main focus is on what is being said throughout. The type changes to create emphasis when it comes to the main points of the campaign. It goes through the three different steps of the campaign, highlighting how each one works. Facts for gender equality are included right at the beginning to gain people’s attention. It includes facts that support men so as not to alienate them, immediately showing the focus of the campaign.
