Students break down stigma about autism thanks to creative campus campaign
A team of Digital Design students have taken the important topic of autism appreciation and developed a creative campaign around it, which is now being displayed on campus.
As part of the Design For Change module, students were each assigned a brief and invited to work alongside a university stakeholder to produce a student-facing campaign.
Final year students David Dymock, Lori Phillips and Jamie Willis were tasked with creating an informative campaign around the appreciation of autism and breaking down the barriers associated with it. Messaging such as “We all need a little help sometimes” were mentioned throughout the campaign, whilst highlighting common myths about the condition.
Using #LetsBreakBarriers, the students also wanted to highlight the support available to students at GCU through the Disability Team.
“When all of the groups had their assigned topics, I realised that they all involved university-related initiatives and I felt that we were one of the only groups to have a topic that was more widespread.” explained Lori.
She added: “It helped me realise that we definitely had to be careful in how we communicated the topic due to how important it is. Although it was a challenge, it was really fun!”
David, who knows people with Autism, wanted to make sure that the messaging helped educate people about lesser-known facts surrounding the condition. He said: “I thought that it was a great topic, because I’m personally very passionate about it because I know people that have autism themselves. It felt good to have the chance to make other people aware and appreciate aspects of it that maybe isn’t quite as well known.”
The campaign included a mixture of elements, such as social media assets, posters and motion graphics. Lori explained: “In terms of what we had to create, the only specification was that we needed a poster and social media assets but we ended up deviating away from it and included a motion graphic to be used on the campus screens as well. We thought that the idea of a motion graphic would be more eye catching in comparison to a still poster.”
Jamie added: “In terms of tasks, it was very much mixed between us all so we had the chance to work on the different elements. We all had a go at making different assets and then decided to go with the strongest example from each category.
The campaign was so well received that the Disability Team wanted to share the campaign across campus as part of Autism Acceptance Week (2nd-8th of April).
“The fact that it’ll be shown around campus is a real confidence boost! It was created for a module, but to know that it’s been recognised by the university makes us feel that we’re actually good at what we do.” Explained Lori.
David added: “ It makes it feel more real. It’ll be really cool to walk around campus and to actually see our work on show. I even felt proud to see the work that other students have made on the screens and on posters, so it’s nice to know our work will be out there too.”
Find out more about disability support at GCU by visiting the Disability Service webpage
By Rachael McAlonan
Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media