The CDCT
Roulette

The Cameron Day Charitable Trust was created in memory of an excellent graduate in Graphic Design who spent his time helping others. He formed a major part of the community at his university. His family and lecturers are now Trustees who aim to celebrate those who uphold those same values of excellence and community spirit. I was nominated by my lecturers for the award in its first year, and then won in its third.

The CDCT run an annual competition between five participating universities called Roulette. Competing students spin a roulette wheel and get a phrase from a selection provided by prestigious design agencies. Each of the agencies are known but their individual phrases are unknown by students. They must lead an independent project based on the phrase.

My phrase was Subconscious Motion. It led me to ideas of metabolism, bloodflow, and fight or flight. The latter held the most significance for me as a long time student of martial arts and a victim of assault. My goal was to empower those who need it most to defend themselves.

I wanted to create a marketing / branding package for small martial arts clubs to guide disabled people to their dojos. The guiding principle of my project was accessibility & inclusion. If my target demographic can't read the posters or animations, how can they access the teaching services available?

For a truly inclusive project, the focus should fall on the success of those who have already trained in martial arts. I reached out to a number of Olympians, award-winners, and lauded martial artists - each of them disabled. I was fortunate to receive a reply from Jessica Cox (the first Tae Kwon Do black belt in the United States born with no arms).

The overriding sense I got from my research was that to empower my target demographic, they need to see themselves in the images. This meant each image must be a blank slate to imprint yourself on. An idea which led me to create my own isotypes - one for each of the six most common types of disability.

The isotypes had such a great visual impact that I modelled the project after the idea - caution! The warm yellow of its branding lent both accessibility and the element of hazard to the imagery.

A poster on its own wouldn't suffice in the modern digital age. It needed moving image so, after a lot of development, I created an animated stinger advertisement for use in vertical social media formats and on digital bus shelters. It helped bring action to the isotypes - truly highlighting the ability of successful martial artists.

The design agency who provided my phrase was Your Studio London. My work became shortlisted as one of three finalists. Presenting my work to them was invaluable experience. Given the opportunity, I would gladly hand this branding package over for free to any dojos who aimed to encourage new disabled beginners to join.