RSA I AfricaPack
Objectives
Improve the way medicines are protected, dispensed, distributed and/or taken in Sub- Saharan Africa.
Design Student Awards
Objectives
Improve the way medicines are protected, dispensed, distributed and/or taken in Sub- Saharan Africa.
Problems
Malaria causes 600.000 deaths per year; 91% of those deaths occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa and every minute a child dies of this disease. Around $12 billion are lost each year due to Malaria. On the other hand, around 50% of medicines worldwide are considered fake and in Sub-Saharan Africa the percentage is between 30%-60%. In Africa 1/3 of every antimalarial is considered fake or containing poisonous ingredients, causing almost 100.000 deaths per year.
Solution
My idea is the use of a code and a graphic symbol in a scratch-off sticker, which will be displayed on medicines and will allow people to authenticate their products through SMS messages. Although the idea of authenticating medicines with codes is already in use by other companies, the addition of a symbol as a security element has the objective of making the codes harder to counterfeit and reduce the number of people and families affected by fake medicines.
Solution
My idea is the use of a code and a graphic symbol in a scratch-off sticker, which will be displayed on medicines and will allow people to authenticate their products through SMS messages. Although the idea of authenticating medicines with codes is already in use by other companies, the addition of a symbol as a security element has the objective of making the codes harder to counterfeit and reduce the number of people and families affected by fake medicines.
For the logotype, a visual research about Africa and the competitors brands was made to know what course of action should dictate the the design. In the end, the use of warm colours and round shapes (the isotype resembles a person with arms wide open) inspired by the African culture was used to create a friendly and dynamic logo.
The graphic symbol will be displayed on the medicines rather in the packaging to avoid the reuse of the packages by criminals. The sticker will break into little pieces if someone tries to remove, to ensure that the sticker cannot be reused.
To verify that the medicines are not fake, people will need to go through a two-stage confirmation process. First, send the code displayed in their medicine and await for a confirmation SMS. Second, the SMS will tell people if the code is correct and what graphic symbol they should see in their product. If the code and the symbol don't match then the medicine is probably fake.
The print campaign will have two objectives: to raise awareness about counterfeit medicines (not many people in SSA know about this issue) and to introduce the product to the public. Due to the fact that this service is aimed to be all across Africa, the communication and visual language is addressed in a simple and straightforward way so the core message doesn’t get lost.
The website will be a communication system for people from SSA and from the rest of the world. The objective is to make people more conscious about fake medicines and the global toll that this subject poses on less developed parts of the word. It will also allow users who have access to Internet or don’t have a mobile phone at hand to authenticate their products or to know how the service works.
Below are some of the pages of the sketchbook I made to explain the process I went through during the project.
