INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN

THE ILLEGAL BLOOD BANK

DESIGN & ART DIRECTION

Partnering with UNILAD and Freedom to Donate we launched the Illegal Blood Bank. The world’s first blood bank for gay and bisexual men, highlighting the discriminatory UK law which states that it is illegal for all gay or bisexual men to donate blood unless they are willing to abstain from sex for three months.

The campaign is about raising awareness around a very sensitive issue. To do this we needed to adopt a stark, yet beautiful style that stopped people scrolling and grabbed their attention. Joining forces with the talented photographer David Gill, we set about shooting our key asset, a singular, 475ml blood bag. 

The Illegal Blood Bank needed to feel trustworthy and genuine to provoke the right emotion with the audience we're trying to reach. The use of the two male symbols to create our shorthand visual identity for MSM fitted perfectly into our Blood Bank identity and gave us a bold and ownable asset in the dual blood dot symbol. 

Whilst ensuring our identity would sit perfectly with that of UNILAD and their audience, we kept a simple colour palette, bold graphic shapes and clean typography. This also allowed us to ensure that we felt authentic within the medical world amongst blood bags, forms and medical practitioners. 

From crafting our blood bag label to tell the campaign narative, whilst visually aligning with true blood bag content to the subtle but necessary updates to the donor questionnaire and nurses badges we kept every part feeling authentic.

The craft throughout the design process ensured that we could create a brand which was respectful of the serious nature of the campaign issue itself, whilst ensuring it had impact and cut through.