Research

We looked into all the negative health effects, both social and physical, of cell phone use. The most prominent physical effects are Digital Eye Strain, which can lead to vision problems, fatigue, and headaches, and Text Neck, which can lead to bad posture, spinal problems, and nervous system problems. Phone use can cause social problems for two main reasons. They can be used as a way to avoid social interaction, which is an unhealthy behavior. They can also inhibit social interaction with friends and loved ones, which we see when friends are together but all on their phones. We made a simple survey that we posted to various UC Davis Facebook pages. Jessica, one of my team members, turned these stats into diagrams.

 

Editorial

From our research we wrote an editorial on cell phone abuse, citing the potential associated health problems and giving some suggestions on how to reduce phone use. We each then had to design an editorial layout to go with our design that had to mimic an existing subject-relevant magazine. I chose Mindful, which uses a variety of artists and designers for their graphics. I pulled inspiration from Asia Pietrzyk, because her illustrations are fun and colorful. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name + Logo

I came up with the name Heads Up because of its double meaning. When you are giving someone a ‘heads up,’ you are informing them of something, as our campaign is informing people of the negative effects of phone use. We are also literally asking people to bring their heads up, away from their phones. Our tagline is: Reality has better resolution than your phone.

 

Our logo is of an arrow pointing up made to also look like an exclamation mark, with an “H” in the negative space. It is red to signify urgency and warning and it can be used alone or with the accompanying name. We also designed our own emoji in the style of iPhone emojis to be used in our campaign. Emojis are easily recognizable by phone users so we played off this familiarity and brought in a new message. We wanted to be able to make emoji stories—stories told with emojis and nothing else—with this element.

 

Material

Our team designed a transitioning bus shelter ad, inside bus ad, indoor and outdoor ground graphics, brochure, poster, t-shirts, a business system, stickers, buttons, sunglasses, coffee sleeves, and phone cases.

 

Our brochure was designed double sided. In its closed state it acts as a normal brochure, with stats specific to the school, negative consequences of excessive phone use, and ways to reduce use. When opened, however, the back can be used as a flier or poster. This side also contains perforated slips of paper that can be torn off. Each slip has the Heads Up logo and web address. If someone is being ignored by their cellphone wielding friend, they can pass them this slip of paper as a friendly reminder. 

 

We made an Instagram account where we posted photos of people on their phones. The idea would be for people to submit photos of their friends on their phones and the Heads Up team would post them to the account. Of course having an Instagram seems ironic to the purpose of the campaign, but it gets people involved and is humorous in its irony.

 

We mocked up a website where people could learn more about the campaign and see what schools are involved. We also mocked up an extension to UC Davis’s existing app. If someone’s friend is on their phone ignoring them they could send them a ‘Heads Up’ message. This is a digital version of the pull off tab concept from our brochure.

 

The initial audience for this campaign is students of UC Davis. However, we had the intention of making this a campaign that could spread to other schools. To initiate that, we made a starter box that could be ordered for free from the website. It includes some samples of the marketing material as well as the template files for all the material so they can be printed and distributed as that school sees fit.