1.8 Billion for change

BRAND STRATEGY + NAMING + BRAND IDENTITY SYSTEM + COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

The hope and vigor of youth and adolescents take center stage in our strategy to position PMNCH’s upcoming year-long advocacy campaign. The sheer magnitude of the youth and adolescent population, the largest ever in history at 1.8 billion, is the driving factor behind our decision to name the initiative 1.8 Billion Young People for Change. Placing the number at the forefront serves two key functions. It ties the youth-led movement to its volume, giving young people the ownership to take matters into their own hands while ensuring universality across languages and cultures.

The movement is defined by spontaneity, immediacy and action, capturing the energy of young people, their activism and advocacy.

The brand carries a sense of urgency, as well as a youthful air of purpose and immediacy. A special hand-drawn stroke was developed for the identity system, which makes the brand accessible, spontaneous and humane. The hand-drawn stroke lays emphasis on being passionate, self-initiated, organized, and strategic. The highly humanistic identity reaches out to youth and adolescents by making the brand accessible and moldable.

As 1.8 is a digital first campaign we ensured that social media communications were youth led and captured the energy and confidence of the campaign.

1.8 has been positioned as a campaign of, for, and by young people hence social media discussed topics ranging from the climate crisis to education and mental health to internet access using statistics about young people. It spotlights youth leaders and change-makers, 1.8 events and convenings, video content with reels and live streams, along with information and calls to action from young people.

While all creatives designed for 1.8 were individually hand-drawn, a custom font was designed to replicate the hand-drawn writing style to conveniently create visuals on the go.

The font was designed following the slant angle of Noto Sans and was created for latin extended script.

‘Stand up for #1point8’ in French

‘Register today’ in French

‘It's happening now’ in Spanish

“What Young People Want” initiative is gaining significant momentum. We anticipate reaching 500,000 responses by July, with a projected milestone of 1 million responses by October.

Wellbeing, the focus area of the campaign is multidimensional in nature and that called for a multi-sectoral approach, thus the expanse of adolescent and youth health and wellbeing is divided into 5 domains.

In line with creating a digital youth lead campaign, we designed a custom ‘hatching’ filter for Instagram. This was supported with an illustration system for 1.8, created as a set of ever-expanding stickers that help young people communicate their ideas effectively on various social media platforms.

This pluralistic design system with varying languages, regions, ethnicities, cultures, sexualities drives the 1.8 movement and enables its acceleration across the world, connecting with young people everywhere.

The ICFP booth in Thailand (shown here) is one of many offline and online events happening under the 1.8 campaign. All activities and events happening through the year lead to the Global Forum of Adolescents that aims to unite young people in the largest-ever gathering for adolescent well-being in October 2023.

Team

Dhruv Suroop

Communication Designer

Nishtha Sharma

Communication Designer

Era Namjoshi

Communication Designer

James Thottan

Communication Designer

Malvika Dwivedi

Communication Designer

Mohan Godwal

Senior Graphic Designer

Sukanya Panda

Research & Strategy

Tarka Patil

Business Manager and Strategist

Sujatha S. Kumar

Chief Strategist and Content

Anthony Lopez

Founder and Chief creative director

A pluralistic design system for 1.8 billion young people across the world

WHAT IS 1.8
1.8 Billion Young People for Change is a global initiative by PMNCH to activate young people across the world to participate on a common platform by voicing their concerns and shaping their future, with a focus on health and wellbeing.

WHY 1.8
1.8 billion is the current population of youth and adolescents in the world — the main target group of the initiative. This is the largest youth population ever for the first time in history. PMNCH’s aim is to make ‘1.8’ become a global movement of young people strategically leading to the first ‘Global Forum for Adolescents’ in October 2023. The Forum will provide a space for young people to come together with various heads of organizations and governments. Through a clearly enunciated program, this common ground will give young people an opportunity to voice their concerns and beliefs, leading to policy changes for the health and well-being of youth and adolescents.

THE SHAPE OF 1.8
The strategy for the movement defines its chief qualities of spontaneity, immediacy, and action, capturing the energy of young people who are agile and on the move. Represented by youth who are engaged in activism and advocacy, the brand strategy establishes ideals, which are being passionate and headstrong, organizing, strategizing, and mobilizing for change.

THE STROKE
The visual identity for 1.8 is crafted to encapsulate this essence of young people that is responsive and dynamic, youthful and vibrant, inclusive and assertive. A thick hand-drawn stroke characterizes the visual identity lending a certain immediacy and urgency to the campaign. The hand-drawn stroke puts focus on the individuality of each young person, representing their needs and concerns for their communities and future generations. Like a signature, the stroke character gives young people authorship of this iconic youth and adolescents movement. This sense of ownership by young people, allows their identity to come through, creating a humane identity system that is deeply interwoven with the young audience’s needs and concerns.

IMAGERY AND MOTION DESIGN
Visual imagery is integral to creating a strong and clear context to take the movement forward. The visual fabric of 1.8 encompasses images and videos of young people setting the context with languages, cityscapes, textiles, and patterns from around the world. These images are juxtaposed with the words and icons in the hand-drawn stroke to connect various narratives of change-making under 1.8, leaving a strong impression of the brand.

Motion design is used extensively in the design system as a versatile tool, which has the capacity of diversifying multiple narratives of youth resilience simultaneously. Be it exploring multilingualism by creating inclusive messaging, or tackling a multiplicity of domains in short animations, the use of the stroke is forever expanding and evolving to aptly capture the energy young people bring to the movement.

THE ETHOS OF 1.8
At the center of the movement lies the health and well-being of young people. The multiple meanings and associations of ‘wellbeing’ call for a multi-sectoral approach, thus the expanse of adolescent and youth health and wellbeing is divided into 5 domains. These 5 domains of health and wellbeing draw from the sustainable development goals and span a plethora of subjects ranging from sanitation to inclusive gender identities, from safety and privacy to employability, all of which impact young people's well-being in different ways.

Inclusivity is a central tenet around which the system has been designed. Creating a pluralistic design system with varying languages, regions, ethnicities, cultures, and sexualities is what drives this movement and helps it grow across the world, connecting with young people everywhere.