Illustration: Olga Mrozek for IPPF x Fine Acts
Illustration: Jal Reed for IPPF x Fine Acts
Illustration: Alejandro Ortiz for IPPF x Fine Acts
In 2022, we joined forces with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a global healthcare provider and a leading advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all, to embark on a visual reframing journey to challenge and disrupt how SRHR are communicated around the globe.
In the past years, women’s sexual and reproductive rights have come under threat more and more. We are seeing a major backlash against the very concept of gender equality. In the meantime, huge needs remain – from lack of access to modern contraceptives and abortion care, to lack of adequate relationships&sex education.
To turn the tide in our favor, it is not enough that we have the facts and reason on our side. It has become imperative that we get better at sharing our messages, foregrounding the values that underpin our work and using language – including visual language – that is more understandable, more inclusive and more effective.
According to behavioral, cognitive and neuroscience insights, opinions change NOT through more information and dry facts – but by empathetic and compelling experiences, visual communications and effective storytelling. That’s where visuals come in: our brains are hardwired for visual content – powerful imagery can help us get attention, facilitate retaining information, and provoke an emotional response and action.
To this end, we first curated two interactive visual communications trainings for 50+ organizations, part of the IPPF network, from all around the world, to equip them with the science of what makes people care and creative campaigning knowhow. The goal; to inspire them to think strategically about their visual communications and campaigning, and to use the power of art for social change.
Illustration: Jordan Schiffer for IPPF x Fine Acts
Illustration: Olga Mrozek for IPPF x Fine Acts
Illustration: Bruna Alves for IPPF x Fine Acts
To support the collective future we are striving for, we also created a new collection of hopeful visual artworks to serve as a tool for educators, activists, organizers and health providers fighting for SRHR around the world, helping everyone access the care they need to live a dignified life, based on respect. For it, we worked with 30 talented artists from around the world, who produced 90+ illustrations on SRHR topics – from abortion care, contraceptive care & sex ed to gender-based violence, gender equality & LGBTQI+ rights!
All works are published under a specific open license on TheGreats.co, our unique platform for free social impact visuals, so that IPPF’s network and other activists and nonprofits globally can use them in their future campaign work. All illustrations can be used and adapted non-commercially to advocate for a better place for women, girls and trans people. The extra awesome thing is that you can change or translate the copy, add new text (or delete it), use different colors – anything really to make it effective in your own context.
We then did extensive social media A/B testing in three countries to understand what kind of visuals work in different contexts, and produced a report analyzing the results – providing insights, recommendations and tips. Finally, we carried out a series of webinars and interactive workshops where we showed how nonprofits can use the collection, talked about how to work with artists, explored why, how and when to use A/B testing, and consulted them on concrete visual communications materials for campaigns and advocacy efforts.
What to find out more about our trainings? Get in touch with us at hello@fineacts.co and we’ll give you the rundown.