This chart displays cumulative research Hybrid conducted against the distractions displayed on posters. All of the driving deaths make up a white skull on the poster.

The statistics are alarming: Teen driver crashes are leading cause of death among 16–19 year olds. The overwhelming majority of these crashes are preventable — most are caused by inexperience or distractions, not “thrill-seeking” or intentional risk-taking. In California, the state highway patrol (CHP) officers say the worst part of their job is coming onto a scene where a young person has lost his or her life … and they have to be the ones to ring the doorbell with bad news for the parents.

In mid-2007, three organizations came together at the instigation of Jon Hamm, CEO for the California Association of Highway Patrolmen (CAHP), to form the unique partnership now known as Impact Teen Drivers. It was organized for the purpose of providing awareness and education to teens, their parents and  community members about all facets of responsible driving. The goal: reduce the number of injuries and deaths suffered by teen drivers as a result of distracted driving.

When Impact began to plan the campaign, they reached out to Hybrid Design. We caught up with the design team — including creative director Dora Drimalas and designer Ed O’Brien — to learn more.

A sampling of classroom materials for Impact including documentary DVDs, probability wheel and stickers.

The campaign has a lot of moving parts. Can you give us a 360° overview?
Ed: The printed materials include a teacher’s kit. While traffic accidents are the number one killer of teenagers, roughly one-third have to do with drugs or alcohol. The rest are the result of inexperience, often mixed with everyday distractions: phone calls, text messaging, adjusting the stereo, putting on makeup, eating in the car, etc.

Part of the series of posters displayed in schools. Posters feature word problems to get students’ attention instead of relying on scare tactics.

Ed: The campaign was initially delivered to every sophomore classroom in the state of California in April 2008. That’s 20,000 classrooms. Each kit contained a poster series, an accident probability wheel and a DVD with a Q&A to start conversations about distracted driving. T-shirts were also included to pass out to students who get behind the program. These turned out to be far more popular than anyone could have imagined.

T-shirts were handed out to students who got behind the program.

Dora: Along with the print campaign is a series of three short documentaries [below] focusing on what happens after a teen dies in a car accident. These pieces were created with a much more serious and somber voice than most teen PSAs, speaking to the teenagers as adults, rather than relying on scare tactics or overly flashy editing. They are intended for teens in classrooms, but there are lessons in them that everyone who gets into a car can take away. Later, we produced several viral videos.

Documentary video by Hybrid: Joel (above). Other short documentaries: Annie and Trevor.

Viral video by Hybrid: Snakecharmer. Other viral videos: Impact Animation and Deathies Awards.

Out of all of the design firms out there, Impact chose Hybrid. What made you stand out?
Dora: Impact found Hybrid through a vendor we both share. The vendor was asked who might be a good fit to run a campaign for teenagers, in a voice they don’t just look right through. Because of the work in our portfolio [which includes work for Nike, Apple, Juxtapoz, Super7 and Upper Playground], the Impact board thought we would be a good fit.

What was your original assignment?
Ed: They were initially looking for an in-class reader — sort of a smaller magazine. After we met with several groups of kids it became very clear that this would most likely end up in the trash. Students are overwhelmed by handouts, and most made it very clear: “The less you ask us to read the better.” So we decided to try using the same budget to come up with as many pieces as possible. The same piece won’t connect with each teen in the same way, so the more ways we can approach them, the more chances we would have that the message might stick.

Why such a diverse range of final pieces?
Dora: We created a range of concepts and presented it to focus groups of students in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco. The concepts varied in tone, execution, mood, messaging. What we found was that teenagers gravitated towards things that made them interact — puzzles, games, solving things. They seemed to pay the most attention when they were given information in a way that let them arrive at a conclusion.

That is where the real basis of the campaign took shape, by trying to make each piece interactive, whether it was the word puzzle posters, the probability wheel, or even the the way the documentaries are put together. Each piece is meant to end with a question, letting the audience arrive at their own answer.

How were you able to recruit so many teens to focus groups?
Dora: If you serve them pizza, they will come.

Was it difficult for you to achieve the right tone in the work?
Ed: Absolutely. We had to find a voice that didn’t sound like adults trying to talk to kids, or even worse: adults trying to talk like kids.

Hybrid created probability wheels for in-class use to show how quickly the chances of getting into an accident can multiply.

Tell us about the probability wheel?  Did each student receive one? Or were they part of the kit?
Ed: The probability wheel was a piece we created following the same interaction theme. Some of the stats on it get really shocking, and many of the students don’t realize how fast common distractions can add up. We started with one wheel per classroom. Additional pieces could be requested, as people really got into assembling these scenarios.

Can you give me an example of how distractions can “add up”?
Dora: Very simply, distractions compound your chances of getting in a car accident. For example, if you are listening to music and eating while driving, you are twice as likely to get into an accident.

How did you decide which distractions to focus on?
Dora: We looked at all sorts of data, provided by the CHP, the CDC and the NHSTA. What popped out was how many accidents involving teenagers had nothing to do with drugs or alcohol. This statistic actually flips as age increases. So we also polled kids on their driving habits. It became clear very early that people are far more distracted than they might suspect. We went with the most prevalent distractions.

Envelopes used in mailing the materials to the schools

How were the kits distributed?
Ed: By mail. Several media events coincided with the launch to help get the word out that the kits were in schools.

What kind of results has Impact seen?
Ed: The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Dora: The interesting question is trying to figure out a way to gauge results, as it’s not something you will be able to tally up through sales or a market response. There were a number of e-mails and calls from both kids and parents, as well as data we could look at — website hits, T-shirt requests. But I think our biggest way of measuring the success of the program has been the number of teachers who have asked how to get their hands on the materials. The demand has crossed state lines, so much that materials are close to running out, and we will probably be expanding soon, especially as more and more schools remove driving programs for budget reasons.

What was the most unusual or extraordinary aspect of working on the project?
Ed: Interviewing and filming parents that had lost children was probably the most intense thing we have ever done as a studio. All of the parents that we spoke with were very focused on trying to keep this from happening again.

Dora: Design is so often about creating a result in a market. It’s not every day you get to use those same skills to help with a cause that could potentially save lives. I think the cause made everyone want to push as hard as they could. The subject matter is what made it different. The focus really made you pause and think.

In the end the posters proved very memorable for the students, who initially said they were unlikely to read anything.

The work is bold and attention getting. Tell us why you chose Via to print on.
Ed: There were two reasons: cost and environment. Obviously we wanted a nice sheet, but we needed a paper in our price range. And Via has a great color palette as well as solid environmental attributes.

Dora: It was on all of our minds from the start that if we were going to print such a large quantity of posters and kits, we needed to be as responsible as we could. Via was a perfect fit. The bold colors really pop off the sheet.

Over the three years you worked on this project, how did you refine the campaign?
Ed: We continued to rev up the work with new and refined parts based on the feedback we received from kids. We actually went back to some of the students that we had contacted before design began to get some results, as well as all of the online comments we received.

Dora: Hopefully these ideas will grow and permeate into the consciousness of drivers, the way drinking and driving programs have done for the last 20 years.

You’ve designed this program like you give a damn.
Dora: We do. Everyone here does.

Mohawk Show entry, winner of the Best of Show Award.

Hybrid Design is an integrated creative studio in San Francisco specializing in branding, retail environments, advertising and interactive. The print work shown here, produced on Mohawk Via, earned the coveted Mohawk Best of Show award. Print materials and collateral were designed by Ed O’Brien; Dora Drimalas and Brian Flynn served as creative directors. The main printer for the campaign was Hatcher Press, chosen by Impact’s print broker, Allen Strohmier. Caleb Kozlowski co-directed the viral videos with O’Brien. Documentaries and viral videos were produced by Redgate.

Studies show that most people never use their directories and fewer still recycle the ones they receive. The new Consumer Choice & Opt-Out Site enables you to customize which directories you’ll receive, even when that means none at all.

Yes, we love paper. Even more than that we love doing the right things with paper — like using it wisely. Wisely done, Yellow Pages.

The first Compostmodern in 2004 was a regional effort to bring graphic designers together around the relatively new concept of sustainability. Compostmodern’s all grown up now, an annual gathering of national scope that shows off an ever-widening range of creative talents.

Case in point: first presenter Yves Behar, an industrial designer celebrated for his role in initiatives like One Laptop per Child. Behar is known for developing a new business model for design — a new relationship embodied in his concept of “360-degree design.” But the concept, Behar said, is not new: In fact, it was being practiced 50 years ago by designers like George Nelson. Subsequently, Behar said, design was “put in a position of specialization.” Now his goal is create long-term effects by establishing partnerships with organizations & businesses: what he calls “eco-design ventures.”

Yves Behar talks about packaging … and getting a seat at the corporate table.

These ventures, Behar noted, often involve unglamorous problems that require unglamorous solutions … a notion the next Compostmodern speaker, Christopher Simmons, expanded on in a surprising way.

Simmons is a designer, educator, advocate, author and principal of the San Francisco design office MINE. In a sense, he took a contrarian view of the idea that designers’ ambition should be to “earn a seat at the decision-making table” of corporate clients. “Do we really want that seat?” he asked. “Can we all be leaders? Who’s going to make this stuff? What’s wrong with articulating someone else’s vision or message? What’s wrong with making things beautiful?”

Christopher Simmons of the design studio MINE.

“If you’re more interested in craft than strategy, does that mean you’re contributing any less” to moving toward sustainability? The answer, for Simmons, is no.

Holding onto the take-aways
Compostmodern isn’t a typical conference, even a typical design conference, if only because of its single-mindedness on sustainability. But let’s be realistic: It can’t be immune to the conference syndrome that results from a dizzying array of compacted brilliance, leading to a certain overwhelmed feeling. The pace of new ideas and accomplishments, while heady, can also contribute to MEGO … an acronym for My Eyes Glaze Over. But at Compostmodern, even MEGO had its upside.

As if from a dream, certain patterns emerged. As I listened to the afternoon’s speakers — Julie Cordua of (RED), Kierstin DeWest of Ci (a brand and research consultancy), Jonah Sachs of Free Range Studios (creators of the video The Meatrix), Heather Fleming of Catapult Design, Lisa Gansky (entrepreneur and author of The Mesh), Dan Philips of recycled/salvage builders The Phoenix Commotion and Nitzan Waisberg of Sustainable Abundance — it became clear that a common thread of exploration in their works involves addressing habits that impact the environment.

Bruce Mau concludes the first day at Compostmodern.

Those habits are also social norms. And norms, as the first day’s concluding speaker Bruce Mau told me in a conversation that followed, are how we make decisions. As Mau put it, when our norms change, we change our decisions … and our behavior.

Day two: The Unconference
“Be prepared to be surprised,” read the hand-lettered signs posted about the Green Room in the Herbst Theater. Whether this oxymoron-ish admonition was deliberate or not, I had the sense a deeper meaning was intended.

Day two of Compostmodern was devoted to the Unconference, an experiment in idea-crafting that conference organizers characterized as to “means of extending yesterday’s conversations.” A cross between a think tank and a farmers market, the Unconference drew on topics suggested by attendees themselves, with ensuing discussions that took place in a series of ad hoc groups.

Outdoors at the Unconference

The open-air quality was in some cases literal, as some of the exchanges took place outdoors in the loggia overlooking the Herbst Theater’s entrance (as well as in smaller rooms throughout the building). Compostmodern “Fellows” — well-known designers like John Bielenberg, Bruce Mau, Gaby Brink, Phil Hamlett and others — engaged in the discussions as participants … but attendees were the leaders.

The process started with moderator Joe Khirallah (of Green Bear Group) soliciting the crowd to nominate discussions. About 50 eager idea-farmers lined up to invite others to join their discussions.

Tessa Fish, an MFA Graphic Design student at the Academy of Art University (also a Compostmodern sponsor), organized a discussion around the subject to her thesis, environmental justice: While all people have the right to a healthy environment, she says, “too often families of low socioeconomic and communities of color suffer the most with toxic waste and environmental degradation. … At Compostmodern I had a chance to get feedback from professionals I wouldn’t have had access to.” Compostmodern “did a good job of breaking down the barriers,” she notes.

Academy of Art University student Tessa Fish leads an Unconference discussion.

Fish has a point: What was most surprising about the Unconference wasn’t the passion of participants or their fluency with topics, but the diversity of how they described themselves. A few examples: biologist, fashion designer, futurist, inventor, industrial designer, entrepreneur, banker, nonprofit adminstrator ….

I was reminded again of what Bruce Mau said about changing norms. His point was that only when sustainable ways of thinking and behaving are part of our everyday way of interacting with the world, will widespread improvements be possible.

I know too many people who cringe and/or roll their eyes every time the “S word” comes up. But when a conference that started out as a gathering of graphic designers draws from as wide a range of disciplines as Compostmodern 2011 did, maybe those norms aren’t so far off in the future.

Postscript
Re-reading Bruce Mau’s “Incomplete Manifesto for Growth” as I prepared to write this piece, I noticed the following advice:

Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces — what Dr. Seuss calls “the waiting place.” Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference — the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

Shades of connectedness — and another good idea put to work.

Images 1–4 from top courtesy AIGASF, HoMan Lee; others by Tom Biederbeck