Public service announcements (PSAs) are messages produced pro-bono by organizations and ad agencies to raise awareness and change behavior. I was assigned to design a 3-piece, PSA poster series on any topic I felt strongly about. I have many strong feelings about today's hottest topics so it was difficult narrowing down my passions. I ultimately fell back to a basic idea that I felt can make a huge impact on world: Let's put kind back into humankind. Kindness is simple. It's even completely free. Anyone can make small changes for a huge difference.

In my research on kindness and humanity, I noticed connections between screen usage, young adults, and mental illness. I decided to target students, particularly junior high to college aged students. I needed a concept that would be quick to understand from a simple glance in a campus hallway or around a college town—something bright and cheery to grab attention. The audience shouldn't help but feel uplifted and motivated by the visual presentation of the message.

Students are becoming adults in a difficult time. Never have we been so influenced by words that appear on screens, or bombarded by endless news feeds, or pressured into perfection by virtual friends. Humans aren't equipped to deal with the immensity of stimulation from so many faceless sources. We are social beings that heal emotionally from face-to-face, in-person interactions. We need a reminder that the people who really matter are the people you can engage with in-person.

While exploring all the various forms of expressing kindness, I kept coming back to smiling and making eye contact. I felt that a smiling face should be the primary visual-focus of these posters, but I needed smiles that were endearing, cheery, and encouraging. To get that effect, I collaborated with my husband, Jesh Barlow. He's been in the design field for over 20 years and I knew I could count on him to illustrate the perfect set of neutral smiles (and other objects) for this project.

This first concept (yellow) has resonated with me the strongest. Look up and smile. Let people know they're worth smiling making a small connection with. The experiences that hand-held platforms provide are often a factor in social mistreatment and the decline of mental health. Research summaries are plentiful and concise: Digital relationships are unhealthy and can't replace the emotionally energizing benefits of real, in-person connection.

This second concept (green) addresses digital distractions directly. Small screen devices have been shown to become addictive over time. It's often very difficult to understand what's happening around us when the whole of our minds are constantly engaged in digital environments and away from reality. Notifications, unread badges, Likes, and FOMO constantly pull us back to these unrealistic digital environments, away from healthy connections with the real people around us. We don't need hundreds of Likes from friends we barely know. We each need just a small group of caring friends we know really well and that we see in-person consistently—the kind of friends we'd buy a gift for.

This third concept (blue) is all about the very simplest of actions we can do to show kindness. A smile, for example, goes a long way. It can change a mood. It can brighten a person's day. It can bring hope into a desperate outlook. Smiles are one of the easiest ways to put people at ease or help them feel noticed and important in some small way. And for ourselves, a good-natured smile feels good. "It is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."
—Mother Teresa.

This fourth concept (red) is all about not taking ourselves or the world too seriously. Take a break and have some fun. Lighten up! Enjoy this life you've been given. Stick your thumb up and tongue out, and see if you don't laugh a little.

Let's all take the opportunity to add these simple and uplifting habits into our daily experiences. Together we can make the world a better place.

Cheers!

Brooke