New Blood Entry — Now You Hear Us
Award: Yellow Pencil
Google Fonts & HMCT / 2022
In Australia, temporary migrant workers are exploited as an economic resource. Hidden within our supply chains, they are forgotten between the gaps in policy and left without a voice.
While language has often been used to degrade, isolate and shame workers into complying with inhumane working conditions, language also has the capacity to subvert this power imbalance.
Now You Hear Us helps migrant workers find their voice. Disrupting the day-to-day using multilingual script aims to replicate the frustration of a language barrier, enabling Australians to empathise with these vulnerable workers and break down the divide between migrants and non-migrants.
What did the judges have to say?
"A favourite amongst the judges. This project shows what happens when you have a well researched, clever idea which is executed with craft and consideration. Using the opportunity to take a risk with its use of typography it allowed itself to become a stand out amongst the entries and proved that you don't always have to have a whackiest idea to create the best type of communication. I enjoyed the dialogue it created with an unknown group of people and how it encouraged audiences to engage with the subject and promoted the need for people to have a sense of belonging in this world, regardless of origin."
Ben Mottershead, Founder and Creative Director, Studio BND
"A ballsy and unique response to the brief. It showed that a concept and its visual execution doesn't need to be complicated, a narrative can be told simply with the power of words"
Alice Ishiguro Tosey, Designer, Alice Ishiguro Tosey