Designing the billboard in partnership with Vital Strategies and the community of Banjarmasin was an exercise of iterating and responding to feedback quickly. This went a long way in completing the final design to our satisfaction, professionally and on time. Our brief was to ‘consider local motifs, styles and language’ as well as communicate a ‘global message’. So, we wanted to promote the positivity of not smoking by mirroring Banjarmasin’s lively social media culture but to also give a voice to youths who choose to not smoke, portraying them as the real heroes.

Concept Development:

The design audit was extremely valuable in gathering observations of attitudes around smoking, cigarette consumption and sales. For example, we learned that cigarette advertising is heavily glamourised but is also banned on the main streets of Banjarmasin and can only be found in small residential areas as shown on our map below.

The concept of a WhatsApp screen was based on our observations of interacting with the Indonesian youth, who are very connected with each other through messaging and Instagram. There was one point where one of our new friends asked for a WhatsApp number, but sadly none of us actually used WhatsApp. Given that the rise of youth smoking was a large focus of Vital Strategies’ work, we chose to communicate through a familiar, relatable format that would project an oppositional stance against peer pressure and the popularity of smoking in Banjarmasin. In the end, this seemed to work well as when we presented the design, Vital Strategies commented that the concept is easily transferrable across different languages and cultures.

The Design Process:

Had to use screen shots of WhatsApp to trace over so that the design was accurate. Started out using iPhone format. (Tjeng, F. 2018.)

Moved onto android format to trace over as this phone is more prevalent in Indonesia. (Shalsagiani, A. 2018.)

Had to insert the images of the logos so used this screen shot to trace over and ensure accuracy in the final design. (Tjeng, F. 2018.)

We were sent a final screen shot of the actual messages typed up from Ancha to correct any grammatical errors. (Rachfiansyah, A. 2018.)

A primary research-based approach seemed to serve our group well throughout the whole project as we based the final outcome on interviews with Banjarmasin students and residents, shown in the images below. This constant back-and-forth process of creating mock-ups and receiving feedback from the Banjarmasin youth was very effective in breaking down our assumptions and reinforcing the fact that we were designing for their city. Furthermore, this direct line of communication allowed us to pay close attention to detail so we could refine the wording and learn about cultural differences in Indonesia. For example, we discovered that android is actually more popular over here, so making that change would increase relatability. Similarly, 24 hour time is used more frequently than 12 hour time. This development is shown in our iterations below.

The first round of interviews were conducted with the Banjarmasin youth to understand why they do not smoke. (Group Durian. 2018.)

The second round of interviews were conducted to ensure the billboard was relatable to the youth of Banjarmasin and to fix any spelling errors. (Group Durian. 2018.)

Throughout the design process, we were always confident in our concept early on but the actual design went through many changes as we received feedback from Vital Strategies and accommodated the uncertain billboard dimensions and logos. We had to quickly adapt when Vital Strategies suddenly told us there needed to be multiple logos as we were not sure where to integrate them smoothly. But as a group, this taught us about learning how to successfully adapt to the situation and deliver what the client wants even if we were not sure how it would initially work. Creating a billboard also taught us a lot about designing to a larger scale. As oppose to designing at the actual size like we did initially, we soon discovered that we could design at a smaller scale by using vectors so that it did not pixelate when it was scaled up. Finding vector files was especially difficult for the emojis because they are not our own design.

My group’s first iteration of the billboard started out in our presumed most popular iPhone format. (Image: Group Durian. 2018.)

Design then changed to a 4x6m format using android and emojis. (Group Durian. 2018.)

Added in logo as instructed by Vital Strategies. (Group Durian. 2018.)

Vital Strategies wanted second logo so we made them into an image and added forward icon. (Group Durian. 2018.)

Final design included another logo as the group message image and size of messages was increased due to emojis. (Group Durian. 2018.)

Reflection:

In the end, this ongoing collaborative process was worthwhile to perfect the outcome and hopefully influence some change among the youth here. This opportunity from Vital Strategies to design a billboard, and contribute on this level in an event of this scale has been exciting, daunting and rewarding. As both designers and global citizens this process has challenged us but as a result we have taken valuable lessons from not only the experience but the people and city of Banjarmasin. It has given us so much more confidence heading into the early stages of our design careers. We would like to say ‘Terima kasih!’ to Vital Strategies for giving us this unique opportunity and we will never forget our first real world clients!

All type and images can be clearly read and message is communicated well. (Rachfiansyah, A. 2018.)

Final design looks great in real life and we are so proud of it! (Rachfiansyah, A. 2018.)