Callum O’Reilly
Research Brief - Invisible Illnesses
OUGD603
Brief/Rationale
To create a visual outcome that raises awareness of the difficulties of using TfL services with an invisible illness/disability. Specifically focusing at diminishing judgment against people with these illnesses using the priority facilities they’re rightfully using. Taking into consideration Research shows greater awareness is needed for people with invisible illnesses using the facilities they are entitled to, both from the individuals themselves, and from previous TfL campaigns that were not greatly successful. Also focusing on the fact that people are being discriminated against due to a lack of awareness. This campaign will focus on raising awareness of the eligibility of using priority disabled facilities on travel for London services, the people who have invisible illnesses/disabilities. Visible illnesses and disabilities are classified as disabilities. From primary research it has been discovered that most people who have invisible disabilities would rather avoid judgement and having to justify their own disability to a stranger, then use a facility that may significantly help that disability on the journey. The campaign highlights various things that every day we all need to live, yet we cannot see. Putting further highlight on the fact that people have elements of their life that not everybody can see, nor understand. Therefore, by having some empathy and understanding the people who are living with invisible illnesses and suffering from invisible disabilities, it is alleviating the stress of everyday travel which may cause harmful effects to these conditions people live with everyday.
Callum O’Reilly
Research Brief - Invisible Illnesses
OUGD603
Issue Research
The research for this brief saw many different approaches, in order to be able to gain a broad understanding of the topic, as well as a wider understanding of what is already in place to help people with invisible disabilities. In order to gain a clear direction for the researcher not go off on a tangent a research plan was created and kept to, allowing for assurance that each element of what needed to be investigated was. The research itself began to look into new stories about discrimination against people with invisible disabilities. After easily finding over three case studies instantly which depict discrimination against people due to their invisible disability, it was evident that there was an issue within this field to be able to combat with a visual outcome. The case studies which looked into had variants of the same type of abuse, people using the facilities they are entitled to coming back to verbal discrimination. After the issue becoming evidently decided to look into invisible illnesses themselves, looking at what makes invisible illness and also what is classed as a disability, the laws of which changed recently. This allowed me to also see the way in which invisible disability impairs people on their decisions when it comes to transport, specifically on public transport due to the failure of judgement from others, due to the fact that their disability cannot be seen, and they may require assistance. It was clear this was something that was a wider issue that is identified by national media companies, with Channel 4 creating a series specifically called “no-go Britain” investigating into the way in which disabilities are perceived and accessibility is not widely available. Therefore, to understand the way in which people are misconceived in
these different invisible disabilities various case studies were analysed. Again, highlighting the fact that there is a lack of understanding from people without invisible disabilities about these conditions. This further research allowed me to reveal facts such as one in five people have a disability, between a quarter of men and a third of women who identified as disabled have avoided situations because of fear of being judged for their disability, and within an investigation over 6000 respondents had issues travelling due to their mental health. Considering that discriminating against the disability became illegal over 20 years ago, it’s disgraceful that people lack so much awareness that they cannot have empathy for people who are already struggling with a disability. Due to the clear focus on the way in which people fear public perception of their disability, I decided to and on public transport and the way in which awareness of invisible disability could be presented better. In which I uncovered current campaigns such as travel for London’s ‘please offer me a seat’ and the ‘lookup’ campaign. Although neither campaign really has the visual coverage needed to be able to make it, knowledge, therefore deeming the result of the campaign not representative of its needs. This was evident in primary research where people with invisible disabilities who use travel for London services on a daily basis claimed that the campaigns were only half successful. Overall, the research made it evident that the problem with people facing discrimination on public transport services was due to a lack of awareness, identifying the need for another awareness campaign specifically focused around invisible disabilities.
Callum O’Reilly
Research Brief - Invisible Illnesses
OUGD603
Visual Research
As the needs of the brief became clear, in terms of the need for an awareness campaign, the next port of call for the research for an investigation into the current travel for London advert style, and overall branding style. The investigation began by looking into the travel for London branding booklet, which specified the needs of the brand as well as the tone of voice. It was important to the brief that the outcome was in the style of travel for London advert due to the authority that this demands over the audience. The audience who would be with viewing the campaign are travel to London customers would already be using the travel for London services, therefore buying keeping with the style of the brand itself it is demanding attention of the audience, due to this is the way that the network announces updates and announcements. It was clear and evident that to be able to create a campaign in the style of travel to London the typeface Johnson 100 was needed, this is the iconic underground typeface that is now used across the entire travel for London network. This had recently been updated in 2016 by the Monotype foundry, therefore information was widely available about the typeface the way in which should be used. The branding booklet itself is very specific on the use of flat illustration to be able to bring to life typographic information, as well as use of colour. Use of colour should be bright bold and engaging in order to be able to give us the key values of the travel for London visual identity, being spacious with a bold modern feel. Therefore, the research reset began to investigate into flat colour illustration with a bright bold key, this allowed for a development of imagery fitting for the campaign style once
established. Three looking into past trouble for London advertising it was clear that there was a very structured style to each piece, by retaining the star once again it allows for the campaign to be able to have a tone of voice of authority and demand the attention of the audience, therefore bringing the information provided about invisible illnesses to the forefront of the piece.
Research Brief - Invisible Illnesses
Callum O’Reilly
OUGD603
Initial Ideas
You can’t see oxygen, but you can not live without it.
You can’t see time passing, But it never stops.
You can’t always see, what someone is living with.
You can’t always see, What someone is living with Everyday.
1 in 5 people on average are living with an invisible illness, and are entitled to use the priority factilies on this carriage.
20 Years after discriminating against disabled people, became illegal why is it acceptable to discriminate against People with an invisible disability
Be mindful, don’t ask to justify the badge.
Be mindful, don’t ask to justify the badge.
Within the initial idea stage different types of copy were explored, ideas were generated around three different bases, playing on the idea of the word invisible itself and highlighting of the invisible factors in people’s everyday lives, in order to gain more empathy from people who do not live with invisible illnesses. The idea of highlighting symptoms of invisible illnesses, to push awareness of specific illnesses although this was felt to be too triggering and may make people who are living with the invisible illness is actually more conscious rather than raising awareness. The final one being focusing on the facts and figures based around the research that had been completed. After deliberation between peers and tutors it was decided that a combination between ideas one and three would be best representative of raising awareness, through making invisible illness related boat people you don’t experience it, and by informing the audience of what it is like to have an invisible disability. As learning about the fact invisible illnesses are classed as disabilities was a major part of the brief, this was an important factor to be able to include. The initial ideas or type experiments in which layouts were experimented with in both style that made more visual sense due to the amount of text on the page and in the style of travel for London. Visual experimentation allowed for the identification of types of illustration to be used. This was a basis to get further critique on before moving forward with creating the final designs. This also saw the opportunity for creative advertising specialist, in copywriting, to be able to evaluate the copy and makes light changes. This process ensured that the text given would allow for most information to be put across whilst retaining the tone of voice of travel for London, in turn retaining the authority they have over their audience. The
initial idea stage also saw the exploration of imagery, through brainstorming, it was decided what imagery would be best relevant to what copy. Therefore, allowing the design stages to be smoother, in terms of being able to go ahead and design the illustrations in the style that was already previously decided in the research stages (flat illustration). Each of the images contrast against what is being said in the copy. By doing so it is questioning the way in which the audience thinks about that property, for example oxygen will be a fishbowl as a fish does not require oxygen to breathe and therefore does not think about it. The way in which the audience does not have an invisible condition and therefore does not consider it.
Callum O’Reilly
Research Brief - Invisible Illnesses
OUGD603
Development/Design The design and development stage of this brief consisted of experimentation in both illustrative nature and colour. Each of the illustrations were created from scratch, using a reference image to be able to get correct scale. Each of the illustrations were created using Illustrator. The main feature of each of the illustrations was ensuring that travel for London colours we used, these were identified in the travel and branding booklet which has been I’d analyse as part of the research. In order to get brand consistency was decided that each illustration should have a colour scheme throughout that specific illustration itself, i.e. all blues, or all purple etc. these colours were directly picked from the colour table within the branded booklet, therefore allowing for a visual reference in which deeper and lighter shades could be selected in order to create depth in the flat lay illustrations. The colour selection was Bright and bold although consistency was important, therefore in some explorations it was unsuccessful as can be seen here with the clock illustration. Even though this colour scheme is more representative of each method of travel on the troubled London network, the colours that you clashing to be able to offer streamlined visual with the rest of the campaign. Once the colours have been explored each of the illustrations and decided the replacement colour background to see whether a contrast or a similar consistency would work best. The contrasting colours which were not identified on the illustration itself as too much of the contrast of the illustration made it look lost in the piece. Therefore, it was decided that the background colours would be swapped from the illustration itself, this allowed for visual consistency through the entire campaign, whilst also allowing for the illustrations to have a sense of continuity, due to their more abstract reasonings. Within the design process layout was also further explored, this is something that was previously experiencing change due to feedback, feedback claimed that the tech should be in the same position as the travel
for London posters which had been identified within the research stage. Although once the illustrations have been completed and inserted, feedback contradicted this. It was believed that by splitting up the text with the illustration in the centre it allowed for Maureen to the text be able to be understood and read in a way that would allow the audience to take in the information that is being said. Whilst all the text was together it allowed for too much of a top-heavy design, instantly putting an audience of reading the entire piece, especially due to the fact that the audience was a busy commuter was someone who would be using the travel to London service. Once the illustrations were completed and the layout was decided on the rest of the campaign could be designed, consisting of three designs that could be carried across various advertising shells.
Callum O’Reilly
Research Brief - Invisible Illnesses
OUGD603
Production Due to the nature of the brief the production for this outcome varied. The outcome could not be physically produced to the scale that would be needed to meet the brief, without the use of industrial printing equipment, but would not be available to myself. Also due to copywriting reasons through the use of typography as Johnston 100, and the travel to London logo, final products could not be physically produced but could be mocked up. It was felt this was more appropriate due to the bridge being focused solely towards travel for London network, therefore being mocked up within travel for London network environment made sense. Each of the types of mock-up which were created differed in size and context, which meant that each of the campaign’s outcomes needed to differ slightly to be able to fit the content within the parameters of that travel for London method of advertising. Large a 0+ size light boxes are used within the network to be able to advertise on platform and corridor level and 48 sheet posters on the wall of the tube beyond each of the tracks. As these are the most popular in station forms of advertising, I decided to create designs fitting for both formats, as the campaign would be rolled out across the network. To exemplify the way in which the campaign could be rolled across the network as a whole I decided to create an ad fitting for a T bus shell. This ad due to size constraints slightly differs from the rest of the campaign. This was deemed appropriate due to the nature of external bus advertisements, as they are only viewed for a split second when passing, or for slightly longer when alighting; therefore, by having a lesser amount of information presented it gives the audience more time to take in what is present. In this case both straplines were kept as they are essential to the meaning behind the campaign typography. The fact about invisible illness was removed, although usually people use a plethora of TfL services to complete a journey and through having the visual assets consistent with the other formats an instant visual link is made by the audience when seeing the campaign in another format.
Callum O’Reilly
Research Brief - Invisible Illnesses
OUGD603
Evaluation Overall the outcomes and the campaign were successful in meeting the needs of the brief. Visual outcome raises awareness of the difficulties of using TFL service with an invisible disability. This is through the notification and reminder to the general audience that there are elements that people live with every day that we can’t see, such as air gravity and time which everybody lives with, things all the which the audience can’t see, and therefore don’t particularly think about. It specifically focuses against discrimination, through the use of copy describing facts to do with invisible disabilities, therefore bringing a large sense of awareness to the forefront of the outcomes. Through using these facts, it also puts into relative terms the amount of people who are using facilities that they are entitled to and the way in which judgements should not be a factor of people using facilities that are there for them. This also highlights part of the brief which identifies the need for people to be able to learn rather than just be aware of the invisible disabilities. Overall the style was then kept with the travel for London style and therefore retains a sense of authority over the people using the service. Through using the sense of authority of such a big body of travel from London, and creating this campaign is in extenuation to their look up campaign, it allows the importance of invisible disabilities to be brought to the forefront of the conversation; something which was required after this year’s changes in law which included a lot more visible conditions within invisible disability. The entire outcome was highly led by research, which was completed in depth and on multiple different levels. Research entailed input from the people who use the service every day who also suffer from invisible disabilities and therefore directly responds to the requirements and needs they believe needed changing on the network to be able to raise awareness, in a visual way that in fitting with the environment.