No Means No!
Scope: 3 Weeks Type: University Project Tools:Adobe Dimension, Illustrator, Photoshop, Procreate
The Brief
'No Means No!' is a campaign branding against women harassment in India. The phrase 'No Means No!' is a term referring to consent and I chose to use it as the Campaign logo phrase since harassment occurs amongst all ages and when it comes to consent, there are no blurred lines. This project arose from the soaring number of women harassment cases in India. Hailing from India, I realised that ir was becoming normal to see harassment and rape news everyday. It's outrageous how such cruel acts can become normal news.
A female doll has been used as the mascot and the branding uses photography as its primary medium. I had to tear the doll apart to reflect the abuse of modesty done through these offences. The three main issues touched upon by this campaign include sexual abuse amongst children, workplace harassment and bride burning.Each photograph symbolically represents the issue raised by the certain poster along with a shocking statistic. Apart from posters, the campaign comprises of pieces such as post cards, t-shirts and media banners.
Branding Logo
The logo for this campaign branding is a typeface of the phrase 'No Means No!'. The No is made to look bashed and battered to show the violence involved with women harassment in India and the 'O' has a hand representing this needs to be stopped. The main colour scheme of this branding is black and red to show the intensity of this issue through the colours representing strength, evil, power and feminity.
Objective & Solution
The main objective of this campaign is to normalise the subject of Anti-Harassment. It informs the different types of harassment and conveys the concept of consent loud and clear visually. The reason for having the photos in greyscale is to emphasise the lack of humanity in these acts. Reading about abuse and harassment news to kids as young as a few months old, to girls all across the country is very tough to digest.
The first poster cover the subject of sexual abuse amongst children. The second poster is about bridal deaths in India. Thousands of women are burnt to death every year mostly because of dowry issues. The last poster covers the topic of work place harassment in India. The percentages are extremely high and was painful to know that work place harassment is becoming a normal thing.
Even though I am based out off India, these statistics were really shocking to me and the more research I did the more stronger I wanted to convey these messages through my project. The phrase 'No Means No' is a very powerful one that everyone needs to respect and stick to boundaries set by others.
Identity Colour
The main colours I've used for this project are red and black, two extremely powerful colours. I'm usually the kind of person who loves bright and fun colours, but I believe a topic as strong as this required colours as strong as well. Red is a colour that can easily capture attention. The colour red is associated with excitement, passion, danger, energy, and action. In color psychology, red is the most intense color. And thus, can provoke the strongest emotions. Red is also colour that triggers the effect of danger and hence using it here is extremely appropriate.
In colour psychology, the black colour is symbolic of mystery, power, elegance, and sophistication. In contrast, the color meaning can also evoke emotions such as sadness and anger. Using a colour combination as angry and powerful as black and red for a project that requires utmost attention makes it stand out. Another main reason I wanted to use red is to denote blood and the abuse that women in India go through everyday.
Photography Exploration
Before settling on the doll as the primary photography subject for this campaign, I decided to do some exploration with human body and object photography. In the end, I ended up using one doll for all the causes to show the connection between all these issues, all of them are innocent girls. The eyes of the doll had this small glisten to it and I felt it conveyed a lot of emotion and hence decided to go ahead with the doll
Marketing Collaterals
Upon Project Completion
This project has been quite a personal and eye-opening journey for me. The safety for women in India has always been a tough topic to even discuss. Having grown up in India, I was constantly exposed to news articles and stories of these outrageous and heinous acts. Through this project and the research I did for it, I was beyond shocked to see the high rates of violence and abuse against women.
Through this campaign, I wanted to do my small part in creating awareness about this issue. Harassment and abuse is also a topic of taboo where a lot of women are brought up in an environment where even talking about the issue is considered uncomfortable. This branding creates more awareness about harassment and aimed normalise the subject. It should also make them acknowledge the reality and concept of consent and act accordingly.