Street Harassment Design Project: Booklet for women, decoy card for harassers

Editor’s Note: This guest blog post is by Isobel Williams, a graphics design student in London who created an amazing project about street harassment for an assignment. Her professor gave her an A 🙂

During the final year of my graphic design degree in London, my classmates and I were given an assignment to choose a social issue that we personally feel is relevant to the area we live in, then to take that issue and research it thoroughly. The research was then to be used to create and design a graphic outcome which could poetically offer a solution to the social issue.

Street harassment was the first social issue that came into my head and it remains one I feel very strongly about. Living in south London as a 23-year-old women, it’s rare that I am out and about without some kind of perverted comment…a constant reminder that this is an issue! It is something that is relevant to the majority of women in my area and the nature of my experiences are definitely not flattering.

For my project, I designed a booklet aimed at young women, particularly students new to London, on the topic of street harassment. Within this booklet I included a card which women are invited to carry on them and give to the harassing man as a decoy. The card lists a website and if they visit the site, they can view a short film offering them a chance to gain a reality check on there actions. (The film is a prototype.)

From the large amounts of research and knowledge I gained while doing my project, I conclude there is no easy fix to this issue, but I do feel a large amount offenders are blissfully unaware of the implications of there actions. Some of the quotes I got from girls about the things that men have said to them are shockingly x rated and it makes you wonder what world these men are living in!!!

After I graduate I am interested in pursuing this issue further and potentially using my design skills to help with the cause.