Half Term at SCA (and earphone scamps)

Or "no rest for the wicked", as it should be subtitled. We've still got a lot to do, and I've got a bit extra as I'm doing some freelance work producing web copy for one of our mentors. But there should still be time for a little rest, with a bit of luck.

In the latter part of the first half term we finally started producing ads. The first brief was a bit of an odd one, and a difficult one for me - we had to produce a government campaign to get people to turn down or take off their earphones, with posters on the tube and on buses. Difficult for me because I depend on them while travelling for my sanity, and because I know that they're well insulated and the sound doesn't leak to the outside world.

Anyway, working with the splendid Katie Harland, we came to the conclusion that lecturing people about health risks or antisocial behaviour would largely be ignored. Therefore we needed to engage and amuse, and get the message across to people with a little subtlety. We did this by suggesting weird and wonderful conversation snippets that you might overhear if you took your headphones out.

First example, which also gives an idea of the typography:

Next example as a scamp, with added pay-off line and the tagline ("Unplug Your Lugs") buried in the web address.

Final example, with some extra words to make it clearer that it's referring to what you might hear in the carriage. I think another team, who had basically the same idea as us, had a better solution, which was to give each quote a date, time, and tube line where it was supposedly (or actually) heard. I think ours was a little clumsy by comparison, though naturally I preferred our quotes...

I had a lovely idea for a hard-hitting poster based on the insight another team had about tinnitus sufferers being likely to commit suicide. It would feature earphones in the shape of a noose, and the words "Tinnitus leads many sufferers to suicide. So it's not just the other passengers you're driving mad. Turn it down". Unfortunately, the suicide thing is a complete myth, but it would have been nice.