This project contains discussions related to consent and safe sex. We recognize that these topics may be sensitive or distressing for some individuals. Please take care of yourself, and feel free to exit at any time. If you or someone you know needs help, support is available. 

The Consent Code is the result of an 8 week Interaction Design course, centered around a group project to use design to solve a problem. My group mates for this project were Alexus Coleman and Elizabeth Nagy, and we worked together to complete the research, strategy, and design of this campaign.

Our initiative aims to reshape the culture of consent on college campuses by normalizing safe and consensual sexual practices among students. Our target audience is University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students, and we first gathered secondary research and developed a Qualtrics survey to collect primary research. Through this, we found that the top 3 locations that students identified to be “at-risk” of nonconsentual activities were bars, fraternities, and house parties. With The Consent Code, we wanted to break into these spaces. 

The campaign emphasizes that consent is an ongoing conversation before, during, and after any sexual encounter, using language that is by college students, for college students, in order to increase audience engagement. Through a combining digital and print campaigns, including distributing stickers and flyers in our targeted locations, we aim to create a new culture and code of consent on college campuses. 

The following survey was designed and written by me using skills from an Advertising Audience Analysis class where we learned survey design. 

For the print aspect of the campaign, we designed posters and stickers to hang up at bars, frats, house venues, and on light posts near popular nightlife areas on campus. The poster text was researched and written by all team members, and the posters were designed by Alexus Coleman. The stickers were designed by Elizabeth Nagy. 

For the digital part of the campaign, we created a social media account on Instagram and converted each poster theme to carousel posts.  For the body copy of the posts graphics, we kept them simple and direct to appeal to college students who are on a night out (easy to read, high contrast, short points). For the social media posts, we kept the text the same but added more information in the captions of each post. All social media posts were designed by me, Charlotte Watson. 

Click here to visit the Instagram page!