Timeline: OCT 2026
Type: University Assignment
Contribution: 100%
Scope of Work: Branding, Visual Storytelling, Art Direction, Branding,
Motion Design
Timeline: OCT 2026
Type: University Assignment
Contribution: 100%
Scope of Work: Branding, Visual Storytelling, Art Direction, Branding, Motion Design
how can design destigmatize
asking for help?
how can design destigmatize asking for help?
I designed a campaign for the UN built around SDG 2: Zero Hunger. The problem it tackles isn’t scarcity but shame: in Canada, food insecurity is driven by lack of income, yet many who need help never ask for it. My response was to reframe the food bank as something as ordinary as a corner store; translating a stigmatized, charity-coded subject into a bold, playful, bodega-inspired visual language that points its humor at the absurdity of feeling ashamed to ask for free food, never at hunger or the people living it.
I designed a campaign for the UN built around SDG 2: Zero Hunger. The problem it tackles isn’t scarcity but shame: in Canada, food insecurity is driven by lack of income, yet many who need help never ask for it.
My response was to reframe the food bank as something as ordinary as a corner store; translating a stigmatized, charity-coded subject into a bold, playful, bodega-inspired visual language that points its humor at the absurdity of feeling ashamed to ask for free food, never at hunger or the people living it.
campaign strategy
strategy
The plan is to disarm shame with humor instead of pity. The campaign meets young adults in a visual world they already trust; and short, punchy lines normalize asking and hand over permission to show up. Underneath it all, one message normalizes the resource and reframes the shame: you are not alone.
Built to live where young adults already are: on campus, in and around food banks and corner stores, and across social media, where the snack-brand look and three-second copy are made to be shared.
The plan is to disarm shame with humor instead of pity. The campaign meets young adults in a visual world they already trust; and short, punchy lines normalize asking
and hand over permission to show up.
Underneath it all, one message normalizes the resource and reframes the shame: you are not alone.
Built to live where young adults already are: on campus, in and around food banks and corner stores, and across social media, where the snack-brand look and three-second copy are made to be shared.
data & audience
data & audience
The campaign speaks directly to the young adults living this reality. Roughly 1 in 4 young adults experience food insecurity (PROOF / Statistics Canada / Hamel et al., 2024), and in a national survey of over 1,000 food-insecure households, 54% named shame as the top barrier to accessing a food bank (Food Banks Canada, 2024).
The target isn’t people who don’t know food banks exist; it’s people who qualify for help, know it’s there, and still talk themselves out of it because they feel ashamed.
hey, take a look inside!
hey, take a look inside!
The campaign comes to life across three major outputs: an animated logo, a set of three posters, and a mini brand book. All built to do the same job: make asking for help feel ordinary.
The animated logo is the clearest expression of the idea.
HELP YOURSELF appears, zooms in on the hidden “YOU” buried inside the word, and lands on “that’s what it’s for.” In a few seconds it performs the whole concept: pulling the permission out of the phrase and handing it straight to the viewer.
The campaign comes to life across three major outputs: an animated logo, a set of three posters, and a mini brand book. All built to do the same job: make asking for help feel ordinary.
The animated logo is the clearest expression of the idea. HELP YOURSELF appears, zooms in on the hidden “YOU” buried inside the word, and lands on “that’s what it’s for.” In a few seconds it performs the whole concept: pulling the permission out of the phrase and handing it straight to the viewer.
Posters into the public space
The three posters carry the message into where the audience actually is. It's loud, clear and easy to read. The final one is built as a pair, set alongside an image of painted apartment windows, so the message lives on a building and feels like part of the neighbourhood rather than a charity ad.
The mini brand book ties the idea together
It lays out the concept, voice, and system so the whole thing reads as a real brand, and the campaign remains consistent.
Posters into the public space
The three posters carry the message into where the audience actually is. It's loud, clear and easy to read. The final one is built as a pair, set alongside an image of painted apartment windows, so the message lives on a building and feels like part of the neighbourhood rather than a charity ad.
The mini brand book ties the idea together
It lays out the concept, voice, and system so the whole thing reads as a real brand, and the campaign remains consistent.
The type and colour system
Everything runs on a bold, plain grotesque in heavy caps: loud but never decorative, so it reads as an invitation rather than an instruction.
The palette is pulled straight from a bodega or snack aisle: super-saturated red, yellow, and a deep maroon, with cream on the packaging. These are “cheap, everyday, grab-and-go” colours, the opposite of the muted, solemn tones charity usually leans on. That contrast is the point: it strips the heaviness out of the subject and makes a food bank look like the most normal place in the world, while also pulling attention to such an important matter.
Finding the headline took several tries. I wanted the funny, double-meaning tone to catch attention, but it had to stay honest to the data too, and balancing both was the hard part.
Finding the headline took several tries. I wanted the funny, double-meaning tone to catch attention, but it had to stay honest to the data too, and balancing both was the hard part.
Managing data
The data visualizations rely on realism: data becomes real-life objects, never fiction. After trying other approaches (ex. first image), I settled on receipts, supermarket products, and buildings, so the audience anchors the numbers to their own everyday life.
On the “more than half walk away hungry” poster, I turned the painted apartment windows into the data itself: the lit windows standing in for the share of people who go without help, so the statistic reads as a place people actually live rather than an abstract number. I paired it with a second, text-based poster that spells out the context, and the two are meant to be displayed side by side.
Managing data
The data visualizations rely on realism: data becomes real-life objects, never fiction. After trying other approaches (ex. first image), I settled on receipts, supermarket products, and buildings, so the audience anchors the numbers to their own everyday life.
On the “more than half walk away hungry” poster, I turned the painted apartment windows into the data itself: the lit windows standing in for the share of people who go without help, so the statistic reads as a place people actually live rather than an abstract number. I paired it with a second, text-based poster that spells out the context, and the two are meant to be displayed side by side.
The second visualization is a grocery receipt that reframes the research as a shopping trip: “1/4 young adults, food insecure,” then “why they don’t ask: shame 54%, ‘someone needs it more’ 46%, fear of being judged 41%,” totalling out to “you’re not alone.” I kept the honesty visible in the design itself, footnoting which survey populations each percentage reflects, so the piece stays truthful while it’s being playful.
To make this visualization feel like a real receipt, I designed it, printed and scanned it, then edited it in Photoshop to add texture and wear. I did try adding a bar chart to make the data clearer, but it broke the realism I’d worked so hard for: it suddenly looked like a separate design piece, so I took it out.
The second visualization is a grocery receipt that reframes the research as a shopping trip: “1/4 young adults, food insecure,” then “why they don’t ask: shame 54%, ‘someone needs it more’ 46%, fear of being judged 41%,” totalling out to “you’re not alone.” I kept the honesty visible in the design itself, footnoting which survey populations each percentage reflects, so the piece stays truthful while it’s being playful.
To make this visualization feel like a real receipt, I designed it, printed and scanned it, then edited it in Photoshop to add texture and wear. I did try adding a bar chart to make the data clearer, but it broke the realism I’d worked so hard for: it suddenly looked like a separate design piece, so I took it out.