Client
Tinnitus.Free
Tinnitus is best referred to as ‘phantom noise.’ It is the medical term for ‘hearing’ a continuous sound in the ears when there is no external source for that sound. With over 15% of the world’s population being affected, the number of young people with tinnitus has doubled in recent years. The TinnitusFREE Foundation asked us to create a campaign platform to help them increase awareness and diagnosis of the condition.
Armed with only a url and a passion to reach out to as many people as possible, the TinnitusFREE Foundation came to ASHA & Co for help in creating an identity and a campaign which would gain traction among a young to middle-aged, music-loving audience. The campaign would be important in helping the foundation gain wider recognition of the condition, leading to a resulting increase in research funding.
Our inspiration for the mark came from the visual ‘noise’ created by the work of artists such as Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely, whose op art often produced disorienting and disturbing effects. By combining this visual treatment with the idea of a maze, we sought to convey the effect and the puzzling nature of the condition.
Building on this thinking, we created a visual language of deliberately jarring patterns and colours that could be used as an eye-catching backdrop on which to base the campaign.
The target audience for the awareness campaign would be familiar with festival-going and nightclub culture. The patterns and punchy typography gave a gig poster / flyer feel to the ads. We used familiar phrases relating to noise and sound to deliver the core messaging about the condition.
The campaign needed the flexibility to be expressed in a range of applications that would appeal to the target audience. The visual styling made sense when used on-screen and at music venues, lending itself to use on t-shirts, wristbands and ticketing.
The designs could easily be applied to packaging for giveaways such as earplugs that, as well as carrying messaging, would be useful in combatting the risk of tinnitus.
ASHA & Co helped bring the effects of this condition to life in a way that will resonate
with everyone. They have done the hard part – getting people to relate to such an invasive disease. Now we can really make some noise with this campaign, in the best possible sense!
Frank van Hoorn –
Director, TinnitusFree Foundation
To enable the foundation to outline their cause to potential supporters and investors, we adapted the campaign elements to create a customised presentation template. The assets were used to take the campaign online.
With several high-profile musicians among the sufferers of the condition, the foundation was looking to gain support from key figures in the music industry as one of the outcomes from the campaign. Among those to have become ambassadors for the cause are Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Roger Taylor and Sir Bob Geldof.
