The original fact was 'around the UK under 18's are drinking 11.4 pints a second.' The Guardian article and all the follow up research on the whole directed me to 'binge drinking'. The statement of opinion was " Binge drinkers are looking for an escape route from life". I followed this with the question 'Do you binge drink to escape life?'
Who?
Underage drinkers and parents
Children
students
Drs surgeries, Children Centres.
Why?
Make them think, ask a question.
Currently need to reframe our cultural relationship with alcohol
What?
Underage drinking/binge drinking
How?
Ask a question
Give some facts - Liver Cirosis, death, poverty
The initial idea development was around the idea of escape routes, dead ends. The NHS website has a lot of information about liver disease caused by alcohol misuse which I spent quite a lot of time detailing on the design context blog. However on reflection I decided this may not be the best approach with young people(too far ahead). A lot of research has been carried out over the role parents play both as role models and also educators. Helping children make the right choices. Teenagers will always want to experiment so how do we allow this to happen but keep them as safe as possible? Arm them with facts. So my Who, how, why, and what evolved to:
Who? - Well educated parents of boys aged 10 to 15 years
How? - Remind them how they care about their children and the need to 'talk'
Why? - The alarming statistic about underage drinkers - 11.4 pints a second.
What? - Using a teenage paper doll and simple facts which direct them to the website http://www.gotateenager.org.uk/
I found a vector silhouette which looked like a teenage boy once I had added a hat. When I was thinking of using the 'liver/alcohol misuse' angle, 'yellow' is commonly associated with liver disease. For the three colours I chose black, yellow and white (the stock). The black made me think of blackboards and I thought this visual would suit the generation I was targeting.
I had a brainwave whilst pondering about the best 'hook' to get the recipient to open the envelope when it dropped through their door. If they could 'see' the paperdoll inside the envelope it may intrigue them enough to want to check it out.
As a parent I know how much time I have spent researching about babies and children in order to give my childdren the best start in life. When your children approach the 'teen' years the whole experience becomes more unpredictible and the expression ' you can't wrap them in cotton wool for ever' came to me. The bubble wrap as an envelope was a natural next step.
There is lots of advice about alcohol, underage drinkers and parents. I found a great site aimed at parents http://www.gotateenager.org.uk/. which captures the ethos I wanted to communicate on my mailshot.
The colours, below, I used in the original brief did not seem as effective aimed at parents.
The silhouette proved to be challenging to cut out and I was concerned I could run out of time if I tried to make 10 editions. I returned to the simpler Illustrator female form to test its effectiveness.
The progress crit version:
