Open University: Changemakers

The story of how I helped the Open University create a website which encourages young people to get involved in politics.

The Open University invited me to work on their Changemakers project, which aims to get young Welsh people involved in the political process. My brief was to design a visual identity and a fully bilingual website that educates, informs, and inspires young people.

Political campaigns and parties should communicate their messages clearly and inspire people with their vision. After seeing dozens of political campaign and party websites, I was left disappointed by the lack of imagination in their designs and was determined to improve on them for the Changemakers project.

Changemakers aims to get young Welsh people involved in the political process. I looked for youth campaigns with strong visual identities, including the Anti-Nazi League, CND, Red Wedge, and Rock Against Racism. I studied their branding, leaflet and poster designs, merchandising, fanzines, and music magazines.

I designed a new bilingual English and Cymraeg logo and developed a set of colours and typefaces inspired by material from those youth movements. I created layouts with clipped and occasionally overlapping elements that added energy to the design. I also used AI to help create a cast of young characters before developing a static HTML/CSS prototype and integrating a simple-to-use CMS.

Andy is a bloomin’ creative genius, he really is! I massively appreciate not only his talent, but also his commitment to making this project a success.

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