Case Study: VHA Celebrating Aged Care campaign
I was asked to design printed and digital material to support the Victorian Healthcare Association’s Celebrating Aged Care – Love Your Job campaign (in pre-covid times, asking aged care workers what they love about their job their wasn't met with an eye roll and a weary sigh).
The campaign acknowledged the critical role public sector aged care workers play and encouraged them to reflect on, share and celebrate their work, during a particularly difficult time for the sector.
Light-heartedness and positivity were important. My initial thoughts were of a casual lunchtime chat between colleagues over a coffee, which lead to the mug as a dominant graphic element, as well as it representing the prize of a morning tea.
The Challenges
A word cloud was to be included! Having never done a word cloud before, my initial designs were messy. Word clouds demand attention, other elements need to back off and let them rule.
In initial designs, smaller words in the word cloud were lost on mobile devices, and without the mug as a strong element to contain it, designs looked disorderly and too wordy...
The Result
The final designs were a playful addition to the VHA's conservative, corporate look.
The font Fairwater Script gave a handwritten, friendly feel. My struggle with the word cloud and hierarchy of information lead to the word cloud being either contained in the mug shape or used as a faint, textured background. Sticking to the limited VHA colour palette was a great way to stop the design getting too busy.
Postcards and posters were printed and displayed in public sector aged care facilities around Victoria, and social media content was active as part of an online campaign from October to December 2019.
Director of Policy & Strategy at the Victorian Healthcare Association, Emma Liepa, said, ‘Amy’s designs were incredibly clean and sharp, and on point with our visual identity. They really helped to clearly communicate the message to our stakeholders, which resulted in a high-level of engagement.’
Director of Policy & Strategy at the Victorian Healthcare Association, Emma Liepa, said, ‘Amy’s designs were incredibly clean and sharp, and on point with our visual identity. They really helped to clearly communicate the message to our stakeholders, which resulted in a high-level of engagement.’
In Retrospect...
If you can't talk your client out of including a word cloud, scale needs to be considered carefully, especially when the result needs to be viewed on mobile devices. Don't be too clever with shapes, the more complex the shape the harder it is to get the words in.