The critical demand to teach sexual consent to young adults through Graphic Design.
This honours project addressed the critical demand to teach sexual consent to young adults, through the use of graphic design. Whilst relating it back to the connected Grand Challenge, ‘Equity: The Final Frontier’, which asks “what changes can be made to improve the health and wellbeing for everyone in our community?” This issue of sexual harassment and assault has become a strong point of concern across the country and is more topical than ever, with young adults experiencing it both first and second hand regularly. Although it is consistently relevant in the media, the issue prevails and will continue to do so until society improves it’s awareness and understanding through educational resources.
Accordingly, I undertook research that drew on the advantages and experiences obtained whilst venturing into the method of co-design. As I dove further into the co-design study I discovered the gaps in existing designs on the topic and the severe lack of teachings accumulated from school. Ultimately, the main conclusions of the research and designs profess that through a more sensitive and direct method of teaching, individuals may develop their understanding of how important sexual consent is.
In order to appropriately and delicately deliver this educational resource, I decided to create a cultural probe kit. This included a variety of engaging assets that would also operate as informative designs, to teach the user about sexual consent. As seen in the images, this comprised of a three-part poster series, body language diagrams, deck of definition cards, condoms and a support services card.
