sa国际传媒

How do you get world leaders to sit up and take notice of the plight of very young children? One way is to give those children a voice and put them at the centre of a global campaign.

That鈥檚 what sa国际传媒 has done with – a major campaign to tackle a worldwide crisis by calling for urgent quality childcare and preschool learning for every child.

We knew that giving children under five the opportunity to have their say would be a powerful way of getting through to leaders and governments who are letting them down.

sa国际传媒 worked with partners and the brand studio to create a special font that uses children鈥檚 writing and features in our Act For Early Years report and campaigning. Children鈥檚 drawings and doodles also help to reinforce the message.

Here鈥檚 a look at how the font was created and why it鈥檚 having a big impact.

Half of all children are denied the quality early years programmes and support they need to get the best start in life. And around half of pre-primary-aged children are not enrolled in any form of early education.

There is a lack of funding and action for crucial interventions such as health, nutrition, play, learning and protection required for all under-fives. It is the poorest children who are missing out. But those children can鈥檛 appeal directly to leaders.

“The youngest children are never in the room when big decisions are made,鈥� said Ben Hewitt, Senior Campaigns Advisor to sa国际传媒. 鈥淭hey are invisible in decision-making compared to other influential groups in society. Our campaign aims to give a voice to those unable to advocate for themselves.”

sa国际传媒 had worked on previous campaigns and branding with London-based Saboteur. Co-founder Nick Eagleton said: 鈥渟a国际传媒 talked to us about children speaking up but not being heard. Despite children being the world鈥檚 greatest persuaders, the world is not listening to them.

“sa国际传媒 wanted the voice of children to be in the room, metaphorically – in policy meetings, at governments, at the UN, where it could actually shape change.鈥�

Saboteur designer Leah Bravo explained: 鈥淲e wanted to create an identity for the movement that really put children鈥檚 voices at the heart of it. By having the handwriting, it鈥檚 clear that it鈥檚 talking about young children.鈥�

Saboteur looked at existing online fonts that represent children鈥檚 writing. But they just weren鈥檛 right. They were too neat or stylised and lacked a feeling of spontaneity.

So sa国际传媒 worked with project partners Kidogo and Chance for Childhood – along with the sa国际传媒 Edinburgh Birth Cohort – to ask young children in Kenya, Mozambique, Ghana, South Africa and Scotland to write the alphabet and numbers. The result was an amazing array of characters just bursting with life.

Then came the painstaking process of creating the new font while keeping as many different styles from as many children as possible. Leah said she had to forget the normal conventions of typography, such as letters being level with each other. She also had to convert the characters into the colours used in sa国际传媒鈥檚 branding.

鈥淲hen we created the font, we didn鈥檛 have a baseline, because with kids it鈥檚 all over the place,鈥� said Leah. 鈥淚f you tidy it up, it loses the energy.

鈥淭he font is instantly disarming. Nothing is neat about it and you can feel the children鈥檚 anger through it. It has a lot of energy about it, which is something we wanted to capture.鈥�

Nick added: 鈥淲hen you use the font and start typing, it鈥檚 like another voice. There鈥檚 a magic to it. It leaps off the page and the screen.鈥�

The font has four versions of each letter of the alphabet available in both upper and lower case. Two of the fonts represent the voices of children aged three to five and the other two are for over-fives. There is also the option to print the letters backwards, as young children often do.

As well as letters, the children added drawings, doodles and scribbles – so Leah found a way to incorporate those for use in the Act For Early Years campaign messaging.

She said: 鈥淲hen we saw the writing, the letters were never by themselves. There were always little doodles to the side. Kids instinctively draw other things – little messages in themselves. That was something that we knew would become an important part.鈥�

The children were also asked to visually express their feelings about leaders not doing enough to listen to the voices of under-fives. The result was some angry faces and even – appropriately – dinosaurs.

The font has already been used to illustrate the , which was published last month.

Ben Hewitt said: 鈥淲e have only just started using the font and illustrations and already the campaign is getting noticed.

鈥淥ur partner organisations around the world are excited to share the campaign content and tell us they love the dynamic and childlike look of the campaign font. Our job now is to get noticed by world leaders and decision-makers!鈥�