YES! to the Census
CLIENT: HARRIS COUNTY & CITY OF HOUSTON
Inspired by “Sí se puede,” the “YES! to the Census” campaign is designed to be visually distinct and to lean on repetition: If you remember no other information about the census… at least remember to say YES! to filling it out! Paired with real photos of real Houstonians, the “YES!” wordmark becomes a sticker that can go anywhere, and be used as an endorsement by any individual.
This project with its multitude of agency and community partners was a massive, massive undertaking. In a city and county as diverse as Houston, there are myriad reasons for our population to be hesitant to fill out the census. Between worries about “the immigration question” (ultimately not included), the fact that 22% of Texans live with a non-citizen and the estimation that Houston has grown more than 10% since the last census in 2010, we were faced with a substantial challenge.
“The census has a projection for what the population of America will look like in 2050, and it’s the population of Houston today.”
Partner agency Lopez Negrete Communications handled market research, pulling together this substantial focus group study which informed our tactics and our creative. It became clear that we would need to prioritize different messages for different audiences, in addition to producing the materials in four languages (English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese). I built an entire Powerpoint workbook for sourcing volunteer translations in additional languages for the more commonly used assets.
Materials were produced for all kinds of partners to use in all kinds of ways: Vinyls on garbage trucks, desktop backgrounds for public library computers, coloring sheets for students, bookmarks, yard signs, handouts, postcards and customizable decks and social media portrait overlays. There was even a series of murals, largely located in sectors of the city most likely to undercount themselves.
Additionally, we released the assets individually to enable anyone and everyone to promote the census in the way that was best for their audiences. Usually a designer nightmare (“Agh! That kerning!”), we kept the design simple and the color straightforward (easy to print on your desktop inkjet) to spread the message while still maintaining brand consistency. Based on this screen cap of the image results from Googling “yes to the census,” I’d say that part was a good decision.
I would love to tell you that the campaign was wildly successful, but in reality we have no idea how our work impacted Harris County’s census completion rates because a much larger factor swooped in: the COVID-19 pandemic. The project wrapped with Harris County residents self-responding at a rate of 62.7%, just one-tenth of a percent higher than the state of Texas. View the final weekly data report from January Advisors for the full picture.
My role:
Collaborative concept, creative direction, collaborative design, copywriting, research, community engagement components
Additional credits:
Design by Bill Ferenc
Market research by partner Lopez Negrete Communications
Informed by data from January Advisors
Mural image via Buzz Magazine
Produced while employed by The Black Sheep Agency
This campaign went everywhere that people did, including to their homes.
Individuals could own the campaign digitally and share what THEY were most interested in securing funding for.
Even some of the print materials had to the opportunity to tell stories about individuals or families.
It was really fun seeing the bright t-shirts in multiple languages!
Some of our communications were text-light and focused on imagery for audiences with limited literacy or low vision.
A series of murals in multiple languages were painted throughout the city by various local artists through a partnership with Up Art Studios.
We learned through focus groups that educators are a trusted source of information, so we got creative with ways to reach teachers and families with census information.
Occasionally we changed up the wordmark to yellow rather than the background. This was one of many social ad carousels.
With more community partners than I could ever keep track of, we produced a large number of computer backgrounds for public computers in libraries and other locations.
Various community events hosted interactive census booths.
While this type of mural never came to fruition (Hello, COVID!), we had plans to make even greater use of real portraiture.
Large vinyl posters traveled around Houston on City garbage trucks, and yard signs in every language popped up all over the city.
Sticker packs made great swag for schools and community events.