ADAPTING TO LIFE IN QUARANTINE

SARA TITILAYO LAWAL :)
GRAPHIC BRANDING & IDENTITY

THE VALUE OF INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS AND REMOTE LEARNING RESOURCES.
​
As we closely approach the ninth week of ‘lockdown’ in the United Kingdom it's becoming increasingly apparent that this pandemic will have a drastic impact on our lives for the foreseeable future. In due time, restrictions will gradually ease and society will return to a ‘new normal’. But what will this ‘new normal’ look like? Will there be a permanent shift towards remote learning and hiring? Will the graduate unemployment rate skyrocket? At what point will it be safe to travel overseas post lockdown? Is social distancing here for the long haul? During this time of uncertainty, it is more than normal to feel overwhelmed by questions that no one has the answers to, and this is okay. 

Thursday 12th March 2020: I had officially finished organising the remaining 6 months for DPS (APRIL 2020 - SEPTEMBER 2020).

Monday 23rd March 2020: The government imposed the lockdown across England and the rest of the UK.  

Essentially within these 11 days, two internships and the opportunity to spend a semester studying at The University of British Columbia (Sauder School of Business) in Vancouver had vanished (well postponed until 2021). Although this was far from ideal, I was fortunate enough to have started working for a Marketing and Branding Communication studio based in SOHO London, two week before quarantine started. The process of transitioning to working from home was surprisingly seamless and as I no longer needed to physically be in London I made the decision to move back to Manchester. Working at home has both it's positives and negative. The negatives are pretty self explanatory and are different for everyone depending on your living situation. In terms of the positives, I definitely appreciate my new found flexibility, being able to clock in the hours that I want to work and creating a new routine that works for me. This is the first time I have looked at myself and asked when is Sara the most productive? Surprisingly, I found that I actually get the most work done first thing in the morning so between 6am to 12pm. So the days I work from home I have been starting my day much earlier and I am normally finished with work around 1 o'clock as I prefer not to take breaks and I have no distractions. This has also made me question whether a 9 to 5 schedule is really right for me?

From this point on I decided that it would be a good idea to reevaluate my goals for the year. I came to the conclusion that the best thing I can do is to temporarily let go of my plans, stop writing to do lists and take each day as it comes.

This year I have mainly worked for agencies that have favoured a strategic approach over the creative process. Although, I know that post graduation I want to work for an agency that is strategically focused. This year I really ​wanted to actively develop my portfolio and not solely focus on the research and development stages of the design process. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to push myself outside of my comfort zone and do a D&AD brief. In the end I submitted two.

1) DUREX - In collaboration with Catarina Bernardi (IVM)

2) AUDIBLE - In collaboration with Lauren West (GBI)
 
DUREX

THE BRIEF: "To help Durex bridge the perceived gap between disability and sexuality with a campaign that empowers disabled people, and challenges people’s preconceptions and stigmas."
​
OUR CAMPAIGN SUMMARISED
​
SEX. EVEN though we talk A LOT about it, we don't talk about ALL of it. Sex is grossly misrepresented. And the disabled community experiences this first-hand. So, to break the stigma and give a platform for disabled people, we decided to create an awareness and educational campaign.  #SEX FOR EVERY_BODY.
​
And this is how: First, we wanted to get to places where people are already thinking about sex,  like shops that sell condoms and sex toys. There, we would help people with disabilities by redesigning some of DUREX’S packaging, making them more visually accessible, and including symbols that represent common concerns that disabled people might have when navigating sex. With this, we are helping disabled people to shop better, according to their needs and showing every_body some of the many ways we can experience sex. 

But that's only the beginning. We are also going to DUREX’S Instagram account with a #SEX FOR EVERY_BODY takeover, to educate even more people. And What’s better than learning from the experts themselves? That’s why we are inviting influencers from the disabled community to talk on DUREX’S IGTV about their own experiences with sex and the stereotypes they face. They’ll also promote the SEXFOREVERY_BODY hashtag to their followers and invite them to start a conversation on how to make our sex lives open for EVERY_BODY.  

On DUREX’S Instagram feed, posts will continue to spread the message and talk about the symbols that are part of this new packaging and how they give visibility on diverse ways of having sex. This conversation will continue on the stories, with the #SEX FOR EVERY_BODY manifesto, where we will ask people to reflect on how they define sex. 

#SEXFORVERY_BODY celebrates the diversity of sex. It helps to empower disabled people to explore their sexuality, have a better sex shopping experience, and feel represented in society. It also encourages EVERY_BODY to reconsider what sex really is.

OUR MAIN DELIVERABLE WAS A VIDEO HOWEVER THESE WERE A FEW OF THE ADDITIONAL DELIVERABLES THAT WE FINALLY SUBMITTED.  

DUREX 2020: Sara Lawal & Catarina Bernardi (Illustrations by Catarina Bernardi)

​AUDIBLE

THE BRIEF: "Audible is a better alternative to mindless scrolling and swiping on our phones, but some audiences don’t consider the brand relevant to their lifestyle. Make Audible relevant to people who want to get the most out of their free time."

OUR CAMPAIGN SUMMARISED

In a generation where everybody is always striving to be their best! Audible understands the pressures we face and how this can sometimes make it difficult to find the time to learn new skills and satisfy our intellectual cravings. Our campaign highlights how simple it is to incorporate self development into our everyday lives.  Audible will encourage the “leisure upgraders” to reconsider how they consume media.  Listening to a podcast or audio book while completing everyday errands makes multitasking effortless.

Lauren and I initially chose to work on the Audible brief as we thought it would give us the opportunity to create a fun campaign where we would be able to develop a rebranded campaign for Audible. At this point we didn’t realise how corporate this brief truly was. We were rather surprised when we found that the brief set by Audible was rather restricting, they had A LOT of brand guidelines that needed to be followed and we had no creative freedom. To begin with we found this rather frustrating, however, at the same time i learnt a lot from this experience and it made me realise how important it is to find the right design agency for you.  At university we are given so much creative freedom to the point where we develop a visual identity, the brand values, a manifesto and we are able to decide how we respond to the challenge. This is one of the first times in a brief we have been given the answers and it is  actually much harder to think as creatively as you normally do when the brief is open. 

​SWITCHING TO REMOTE LEARNING

This year I have had a true reality check of how competitive the job market really is. During the interview process I was rather surprised that a lot of the conversations I had were about self initiated projects and books instead of my actual degree. I have always really enjoyed reading but throughout the first two years at university I didn't make the time to read on a regular basis. So, at the start of this DPS year I set myself a goal to read a new book every fortnight and at the moment I am trying to read a new book each week. From just taking one hour out of my day to read I feel like this helped me to evaluate situations a lot more rationally.