In 2021, 535 workers died in the construction industry.
35 were work-related accidents.500 were suicides.
Wellbeing support was there, but it wasn’t visible.
Together with Ford and the Lighthouse Club, we decided it was time to Make It Visible.
‘Make It Visible’ is a purpose-driven campaign designed to tackle a devastating reality within the construction industry: male suicide. While construction sites are heavily regulated environments plastered with signage ensuring physical safety, there was a glaring absence of warnings about the dangers of ignoring mental health. We needed a campaign that shattered the deeply ingrained culture of “manning up” and keeping struggles buried, speaking directly to workers in a way that felt authentic and un-ignorable.
From a design perspective, the success of the campaign relied on creating assets that felt native to the environment. We deliberately borrowed from the visual language already present on sites, utilising utilitarian typography and high-visibility colours as our foundational branding elements. The flagship innovation of this approach was the ‘Higher Vis Vest’. We reimagined an everyday site essential, creating a vest that featured a disruptive dazzle pattern of high-vis colours integrated with easily accessible, instant-help contact information. This striking visual identity was then scaled across the industry’s physical touch points, branding everything from Ford Transit vans and on-site tools to equipment and hoardings. Supported by a new digital hub and a highly targeted social campaign, ‘Make It Visible’ transformed everyday construction aesthetics into a lifeline for those who needed it most.
