Key4Life
Key4Life is a charity that works with offenders in knife crime to help them stop from reoffending and turn their lives around. As a part of D&AD New Blood, they set a brief that required a typographic campaign, aimed at 11-17 year olds, discouraging them from a life of crime and showing that there are other paths.
Problem
This brief required both static and digital elements, as well as a non traditional touchpoint. The key challenge with this brief was trying to find a visual language that would connect with the audience, without feeling patronising or overly full of statistics.
Solution
I found a statistic that I thought would most connect to the key audience, that carrying a knife puts you at more risk of knife crime related injuries. This was to be the central message across all campaign material. By showing the dangers of knife crime, I hoped to convey that although it may seem illogical, it is always safer if you are not carrying a knife and avoid that life path.
Protect Yourself, Ditch the Knife posters, for use in promotional material such as billboards.
For the non traditional touchpoint, I decided to use stickers on the ground, reminiscent of the social distancing stickers we now commonly see on our pavements. The placement of these stickers can easily be distributed more frequently around areas highly populated by the target audience, such as school gates or bus shelters.
Social Media
With the target audience being within a particular age group, I also knew I needed to consider an online engagement as well, to further the spread of the message and increase the chance of the campaign being seen.
These frames show the potential social media presence for the campaign, via Instagram stories. The first image (far left) is a still photo version, and the remaining three are the stills that make up a gif style animated story, with more stitching and text become visible throughout the story.
