Can I Kiss You is a contracted event that is put on at Northern Arizona University by the department of Housing and Residence Life in partnership with Campus Health. This event explores verbal consent, bystander intervention, and properly supporting survivors.
Trigger warning: This case study discusses matters of sexual assault.
Historically the marketing for this event has been based on lip prints and romance colors like red, pink, and white. Marketing generally looked like Valentine's day more than a fun and educational program.
Determined to break this design cycle, I began by researching what kind of imagery was trending and appealing to 17-21 year-olds by interviewing student workers in the office and researching Pinterest and Google images. Pop art and comic books were the highest trending styles.
Determined to break this design cycle, I began by researching what kind of imagery was trending and appealing to 17-21 year-olds by interviewing student workers in the office and researching Pinterest and Google images. Pop art and comic books were the highest trending styles.
The test illustration I created, featured a traditional female-male couple with atypical skin colors, in a failed attempt to be racially inclusive due to the prominent Caucasian features. I also had plans for two additional images with male-male and female-female couples in affectionate poses for sexual inclusion. After some feedback and discussion it was decided that this plan wasn't inclusive enough. I needed to find a way to depict diversity in race, identity, and sexual preferences.
During the height of the #metoo movement in 2018 I learned that plus-size survivors faced an additional hurdle in an already difficult experience. Plus-size women can also contend with being dismissed not only because they are a woman, but because they "should be thankful for the attention" due to their size. Because of this I decided to expand inclusion to depict diversity in race, identity, sexual preference, and size.
In the final version I decided to keep multicolored characters but only focus on their hands. The poses of the hands were decided upon after brief research on affectionate and less affectionate hand holding styles.
This project, not only stretched my creativity and problem solving, it helped me grow as a better human and designer. I feel like the final product is a powerful yet natural solution as it was very well received across campus with several direct compliments.
Design was created by Suzanna Bunch under the employment of Housing and Residence Life, Northern Arizona University.
Can I Kiss You is a program designed for Universities by The Center for Respect.