Kowheori-19 │ Covid-19: Posters

These posters were the first to be produced by the New Zealand government in the distinctive ‘Unite against COVID-19’ design scheme to disseminate key messages about Covid-19. They appeared in streets throughout New Zealand from 20 March 2020 in time for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement of the alert levels system on Saturday 21 March 2020. The posters were pasted up or delivered on electronic billboards, and were available for download on the government’s Covid-19 website (with new posters added over time: https://covid19.govt.nz/updates-and-resources/posters/).

There were initially four key messages: ‘be kind’, ‘cough or sneeze into your elbow’, 'washing and drying your hands kills the virus', and 'stay home if you are sick'. The last of which was updated to ‘stay home save lives’ when New Zealand went to Alert Level 4 at 11.59pm on 25 March 2020. Anyone in New Zealand who was not an essential worker had to stay home in their own 'bubble' to prevent community transmission of the virus.

‘Be kind’ was first said by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in March 2020 when she asked New Zealanders to be kind to each other: 'Be strong but be kind - we will be ok' (NZ Parliament, 2020).

Design

Clemenger BBDO Wellington designed the government’s Covid-19 campaign. The posters and overall visual system had to be developed quickly, within a week. Clemenger BBDO needed to deliver a campaign which would work across all communication platforms and media channels. The design had to work for all viewers, be clear, understandable, and translatable.

The design team needed to figure out what the government's 'voice' would be to 'help people and to make them feel calm' (Rawsthorn, 2020). The design needed to be serious but approachable: ‘Unite’ is a rallying point to bring everyone together; ‘against’ is a call to fight; ‘COVID-19’ calls out the enemy. The typeface helps present this approach and is called Omnes by Darden Studio. It looks humane with its soft rounded edges. 'COVID-19' is not bolded so that it doesn't 'shout' at readers.

Colour is important in the design and is in contrast to many overseas Covid-19 campaigns which favoured just black and white. The diagonal yellow lanes catch attention, but the shade is warm and friendly rather than a harsh warning colour (however, not any shade of yellow was acceptable: the correct pantone number was enforced wherever possible).

Black pictograms communicate the key messages, and are accompanied by positive wording, rather than prohibitions. They tell people what to do to achieve a positive outcome (e.g. 'stay home save lives'). The pictograms add a human element and have a handdrawn look to feel relatable. They show people what to do, and they make it look achievable (e.g. coughing into your elbow).

The government has applied this design scheme to all of its communications, bringing empathy, clarity and consistency of messaging to the public during an extremely unsettling and worrying period.

Masterpieces of communication

The key visual system ‘Unite against COVID-19’ may be considered one of the most effective public information campaigns about the Covid-19 pandemic. The look and feel of the posters was considered a ‘masterpiece of utilitarian design’. The ‘rounded off edges of the typeface blunted its impact’. The yellow was almost comforting in its ‘yolkiness’ (Greive, 2020).

Commentators observed that the posters were part of a ‘multifaceted, stunningly effective campaign which unified a nation into complying with unprecedented restrictions with near total obedience.’ It ‘became the most ubiquitous campaign in memory’, seen everywhere from television to print, from online platforms to billboards and posters. It was a huge media spend and a lifeline for imperilled media outlets. ‘It was a campaign no one who lived through it will forget. The reach, the clarity and the consistency of message’ made it a ‘modern masterpiece of mass communication’ (Greive, 2020).

References:

Clemenger BBDO (2020). Unite Against COVID-19. Unite Against COVID-19 — Clemenger BBDO

Greive, D. (2020, May 11). The epic story of NZ’s communications-led fight against Covid-19. The Spinoff. https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/11-05-2020/a-masterclass-in-mass-communication-and-control/

Jurišová, V. (2020). The fundamental role of design and visual communication at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal Marketing Identity, 1, 226-232.

New Zealand Parliament (2020, March 17). Hansard (debates), Volume 745. https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansD_20200317_20200317

Rawsthorn, A. (2020). Mark Dalton. Wallpaper, 25 (10), 177-179.