CASE STUDY
#1MillionCampaign: Advocating for mental health through empowerment & positivity
You Are Collective’s goal to reach one million fully-funded counselling sessions across Canada was the inspiration for this design project. It guided all design thinking and questioning. We needed to develop designs that were polished and professional in order to provide the #1MillionCampaign with a design system for a national mental health initiative. The brand identity needed to maintain the friendly grassroots charm of the You Are Collective while attracting donors, and supporters that could help make a larger impact.
LOGO
Creating a logo to represent a mental health initiative of this magnitude required a different approach. The idea was to make a logo representing the hashtag #1MillionCampaign in a way that showed the magnitude of the ambitious task as well as the community of mental health advocates who support it.
The solution was a logo with three variations representing three aspects of mental health–social, physiological and emotional. Each variation is very similar in structure with the main differences being the colour and symbol in the hashtag. Community is at the core of the #1MillionCampaign which is why you can see simplified people in the i’s and letterform counters.
Graphics & Mockups
Laying the foundation for the visual voice of the #1MillionCampaign meant creating graphics that get noticed. The graphics needed to look approachable and professional through thoughtful consistent brand identity design. Consideration needed to be made for those who could benefit from free counselling sessions as well as the local businesses that would be directly investing in the mental health of their community. This helped to direct the branding focus around the concept of “strength in numbers” and a whole community approach to mental health.
Digital assets
Finally, a presentation deck was designed using the colour palette, graphics, logos and established content to bring the initiative to life! Google Slides was used as a budget-friendly way to share a presentation that doesn’t require much more than an internet connection to present.
Talking about mental health should be easier. I believe the solution is to make it less scary by erasing the stigma through continued advocacy and thoughtful design.
∧ CLICK ON THE IMAGES FOR EXAMPLES ∧
THE RESULT
You Are Collective adopted the new design system right away and were confident in presenting it to their prospective partners, donors, and supporters. They created a new Instagram account for new content reflecting the new visual voice of the #1MillionCampaign. They’ve also applied the logo to their stationery, labels, newsletters, and big cheques. The result was an increase in followers of 105 in less than two months, more letters sent out, and a renewed confidence in their brand.