World Food Program USA Hunger Strikes Harder Campaign

Blue State worked with World Food Program USA to create an impactful End-of-Year campaign focused on the devastating impact of conflict as the #1 driver of hunger in a way that compels supporters to immediately respond to this crisis. Creative direction was led by Blue State’s Liz Langton, and my role was to lead the visual direction of the campaign.

Our team created several creative campaign elements demonstrating the link between conflict and hunger, ultimately driving audiences to donate.

Blue State created two campaign directions: Hungry for Peace and Hunger Strikes Harder.

Concept A: Hungry for Peace

For this direction, we wanted to highlight the unrelenting relationship between conflict in vulnerable communities and hunger.

For the visual execution of Hungry for Peace, we wanted to evolve the design to feel more innovative and refreshed. The visual tone was intentionally different from World Food Program’s more recent campaigns, in order to be more visually striking in contrast to less urgent campaigns. However, in order for this end-of-year campaign still feel tied to the established brand, we utilized fonts and colors that were present in previous assets, but treated in a refreshing way.

The main new visual element we incorporated was a very subtle textural animation of dust and ash in the background, alluding to the destruction and devastation that conflict and hunger leave behind, without being alarmist or cliche with our visual metaphors.

This concept and animation focus on the lives impacted by the destructive nature of hunger, both of the faces that are captured that audiences connect with emotionally and those we don’t see. The animation’s timing grants just enough time for viewers to read the copy and identify the people being affected, before slipping out of grasp, referencing the urgency and need for immediate action.

Design concept assets

Concept B: Hunger Strikes Harder

Hunger Strikes Harder evoked conflict but is clear about the problem: the food issues that arise during incidents of conflict.

This concept directed our audiences to the children and families facing the consequences of conflict. They are the unwilling, innocent victims of this weapon of mass destruction.

The visuals of this direction were more closely tied to the established World Food Program brand. We kept the primary sans serif and brush typeface lockup, as well as including a brush stroke graphic element that has been present for previous campaigns.

In order to set this concept apart from previous campaigns, especially during this critical time for fundraising clients, we wanted to employ real footage and sound, as well as using a more urgent color palette.

The visual identity for the Hunger Strikes Harder campaign was crafted with the understanding that World Food Program needed to move our audiences with urgency, during an unprecedented year of global unrest. It encouraged donors to save children and families from an impactful weapon of war: starvation. Hunger Strikes Harder implemented an immersive approach to earn our audiences attention with strong color contrast and compelling audio and video.

Design concept assets

The Hunger Strikes Harder campaign was the direction our teams ultimately decided on. We were able to quickly launch a successful campaign that helped World Food Program provide ongoing humanitarian relief to communities in need worldwide.