Mug up! Or else...

The goal of our second long-term design project, overseen by Ruth Sykes, also from Reg Design, was to create a call to action, through the design of a poster and a supporting item.
I chose to communicate on the matter of disposable paper cups. The goal was to make people change their behavior and use a travel mug rather than the averages paper cup that always ends-up in the trash.


The name of the campaign, Mug-up!, is voluntarily bossy, and works with a more playful line that justify the call to action.


In order to sensibilise people on the matter, I showed an overdramatic result of the use of cups. Playing on the huge quantity of paper cups that end up thrown away everyday, I chose to humanize them, making the threat more tangible.
The poster plays on this spooky aspect with dramatized light, sharp contrasts and green overtone evocative of danger and horror movies.

The item is complementary to the poster and used to reach the people whose behavior needs to change (i.e. people using take-away cups), catch their attention. To achieve that it uses the usual dressing of the paper cups: a cardboard sleeve to protect from the heat, and a small cardboard disc fixed on the lid of the cup.

As the campaign is non-profit, it could be global and the customized sleeves and lids would be available with all take-away beverages, no matter the brand: Starbuck, Costa… All would participate, helping to increase the awareness on the subject and acting as a trigger to make people change their habits.