UN Covid-19 Open Creative Brief – #SignsOfTheTimes

In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, in early 2020 the United Nations and World Health Organization put out an open brief to creatives everywhere asking for help in translating critical public health messages and preventing the spread of misinformation.

This got me thinking, and banging heads with my buddy Gemma Dowler – before scrabbling for any mid-lockdown, mid-childcare, after-work free time to have a go.

The brief focuses on a number of COVID-19 combat needs such as personal hygiene, social distancing, spreading messages of solidarity, and the need to stem the spread of myths, hearsay, and misinformation that are giving the virus itself a run for its money.

With that in mind, we started to think about the other ways people signpost messages, warnings and directions.

Like with signposts.

So here’s our idea to remix our UK road signs to get these messages across, packed into a small suite of visuals we call hashtag#SignsOfTheTimes.

It’s simple, not overly reliant on words, and could easily be adapted to the visual language of national road sign systems everywhere.

We simply asked people to share them if they liked them, and to have a go themselves and keep us posted using hashtag #SignsOfTheTimes.

And they did!