To help displaced people reclaimtheir identity
“The Vanishing Point” typography-based campaign
Practice
D&AD New Blood x Monotype:
Freedom vs. Law and Order (2025)
TeamMembers
Ishita Shandilya, Joao Pinedo,
Mohamadreza Ramezani, Sakshi Sonawane
Contribution
– Research and concept development (w/ All)
– Typeface design (w/ Joao)
TheChallenge
Democracies are constantly grappling with the tension between protecting the freedom of individuals and groups, and providing safety and well-being to all citizens through the maintenance of law and order. The brief challenged us to express this tension through a typographic behaviour, using a real issue happening in the world today.
One of the clearest examples of this tension is the global displacement crisis. Due to wars and political tensions, people are forced to flee their home in search of a better life and a new identity. Meanwhile, getting citizenship in different countries is becoming harder and harder due to government legislation.
TheInsight
Reviewing refugees’ narratives, we found out that gaining citizenship is an essential part of their social integration. It’s more than just a legal status and gives them a sense of belonging to the host society.
TheSolution
By highlighting the hardship that every refugee faces and the fundamental rights they’re deprived of, we designed the typography-based campaign “The Vanishing Point”. People can discover refugees’ stories, show empathy by sending supportive messages, and sign a petition to pressure governments into easing citizenship laws for refugees.
To define the typographic behavior we looked at passports as it's the official document that affords people protection, credibility and certifies our identity. The dot-based letters used in different pages of the passports inspired our type design process.
In addition, a punching effect – commonly used to invalidate passports – was applied to the letterforms to reflect the language of law and the concept of a void of legal recognition within the ideas explored in the campaign.
