Me. Him. Us.
GMD alumnus Sho Mizutani has been involved in creating an HIV campaign with the gay men’s health charity, GMFA, which is currently appearing at poster sites around South London. The initiative aims to increase testing among BAME (black and minority ethnic) gay and bisexual men but also to increase representation of BAME gay and bisexual men in public health campaigns. The campaign has already attracted a lot of media attention and has been nominated for Diversity in Media Marketing, Campaign of the Year Award 2018.
Here Sho talks about his career since graduating, getting involved as a volunteer designer with the charity and working on the campaign.
“After graduating in 2015 I was working with a entertainment video production company and had a few odd freelance jobs. But I settled with a health tech startup called Babylon Health at end of 2016 and have been there ever since. At LCC I focused on the subject of health in a progressive manner, so my portfolio was a natural fit with a company that was delivering a digital and AI health service globally. I am part of a growing in-house brand design team, producing print and digital marketing collateral, website and social media campaigns. We also collaborate with the UX UI team to make our product a great design experience.
I joined GMFA as a volunteer at the very end of my time on the GMD course. It was a great opportunity to utilise my graphic design skills together with my passion for LGBTQ+ issues especially in relation to BAME communities. It was exciting taking action on the problem of unequal racial representation as it is known to contribute to some serious consequences on HIV and mental health. The process was to listen closely to our audience and develop creative outcomes that resonate and represent them. We have real gay black models representing their daily lives with their partner and amongst their friends. The campaign brand is visualised in a bold and non-medical way, allowing our messaging to speak directly to the intended audience, saying that you’d want to test for HIV because you care about the health of yourself, your partner and your friends.
It feels good in my human experience to be able to contribute to the health and wellbeing of others. The seriousness of the issues in the brief allowed my creativity to thrive and that creative moment is what I love about being a designer. I’d like to continue as a designer in the health sector, I believe this is one way us graphic designers can change the world for the better.”
