Make it Right
Helping empower young workers.
CASE STUDY
Procreate | Illustrator | InDesign | Photoshop
Youth At Work
Anyone that’s ever worked a job as a teenager or young adult will tell you how much it sucks—you get harassed, taken advantage of, and screamed at by awful bosses and customers. The entry-level jobs most young workers get stuck with just plain suck. Often, young workers aren't aware of their rights at work and don't know how to stand up for themselves
Being new to the workforce, everyone and everything is intimidating and you're afraid to ask questions for fear of repercussion.
So how do we help young workers know their rights and gain the confidence they need to assert their boundaries?
Sorting Things Out
The first step was foraging for as much information on the problem and the target audience as possible. I was able to snag a bunch of information from a bunch of different sources.
A few weeks were spent gathering information and data, including both statistics and more anecdotal info.
Now onto sticky notes! In order to fully understand all this information, I wrote information out on sticky notes and placed them all over my wall. I categorized information into categories, like type of jobs young workers work and common struggles among the demographic.
sticky notes help me since I'm a visual person
Exploring Visuals
I chose keywords and created a moodboard to guide me throughout the project. I was very inspired by the analog materials of old teen diaries and angsty magazines with bold typography.
lots of paper, tape and sticker visuals
The next step was figuring out which deliverables would help solve the issue of young worker's troubles at work.
I kept the audience and their needs in mind as I chose the deliverables that I thought would help solve the issue the best.
The Brand
To start the brand off, I did some logo sketches. I wanted something that was reminiscent of worker’s rights rallies and union groups, but was still friendly and focused on finding solutions, rather than burning down government buildings and rioting.
chosen sketch!
I settled on a lightbulb fist with some energetic type. It was important to balance both the feeling of taking action against injustice with positivity and supportive vibes.
The fist is a nod to worker's rights groups, but the lightbulb aspect puts the focus on positive solutions instead of anger.
Since I was inspired by the analog materials in angsty, teen magazine, I chose a bold font for headers that looked like brushwork and a handwritten font that looked like notebook notes. The body copy is very legible (and it does make me laugh that's it's called work sans. How on brand!) I wanted the colours to be gender-neutral to be inclusive, as well as bold and full of energy.
love a good gif
The Deliverables
I sketched a bunch of different concepts and ideas for each deliverable and explored various ideas. I received a whole wack of feedback on all my sketches. Now that I had a bunch of ideas and a bunch of feedback, I got started on making all the deliverables.
I was going for an analog look, and assets are super expensive. I used my scanner to make my own ripped paper, tape and marker assets.
Next, I hopped into Procreate to make some illustrations. I settled on a simplistic cartoon style that would appeal to the target audience.
I was super inspired by the illustrations done by the streetwear brand A-Lab, a brand popular with the kids these days.
Afterwards, the illustrations were taken into Illustrator to be vectorized. I took the illustrations into Photoshop and followed a few tutorials that helped me in creating semi-realistic digital stickers that would match the crafty, analog theme I was aiming for.
the little fold and lifted parts add a lot!
With the assets and the branding ready to go, I made first drafts of all the deliverables using InDesign and Illustrator. There were multiple feedback rounds, and I used that feedback to simplify, adjust, remove and fiddle until they were successful solutions.
The brand guide makes it easy for volunteers to maintain brand consistency while creating content.
An Instagram account is kind of a no-brainer for an audience of young folks. Instagram templates also make it easy for volunteers to make content super quickly and keep things looking fresh.
all of these are templates!
The square pamphlet features real stories from young workers, and helps the young workers know they’re not alone and potentially show solutions to possible issues they might also be having.
The pamphlet is playful and easy to read, written in a casual but knowledgable way, with some fun visuals to spice things up.
Merchandise is gender-neutral, because Make it Right is for everyone, but it’s also affordable and wearable, showcasing the brand and driving awareness. Things like tote bags and enamel pins are wearable at work as well, further reinforcing itself in the workplace. And stickers, who doesn't love stickers!?
super playful merch
The Website
The next phase of this project was a website. I started off this process creating personas to keep my goals aligned with the needs of the user.
branding the personas is good practice
After creating an inventory of information and features the site needed to include, I hopped into Adobe XD to create some wireframes.
The wireframes went through user testing and I was able to take that feedback with me into the final prototype.
The website is an accessible and engaging way to learn your rights. Information is written in a casual and bite-size way. Legal rights can be pretty dry, so the condensed and casual writing style makes it much easier to get through without falling asleep.
a whole lot of information here
Articles and laws are categorized and easy to search for, letting you find exactly what kind of info you need.
Law information is easily shareable, so if your friend is having issues, you can send them specific information super quickly.
The article page features reader submissions, like an advice column, as well as explanations of common work-related terminology and updates on various worker's laws in BC. There's also a handy dandy chat on the website.
The chat offers immediate support from real volunteers, both moral support and legal advice, depending on what you need.
So, what did we learn?
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Design a brand based off of research and apply it to both digital and analog products.
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Empathize with younger audience.
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Condense difficult information into something much easier to read.
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Make a fully linked website prototype in Adobe XD.
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A new illustration style.
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How to photoshop semi-realistic stickers.
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Create my own assets using a scanner.
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Design a cohesive social media marketing strategy and templates for client to use to create content.