Plan for the 136k

Award-winning national campaign design for urgent, accessible action on youth homelessness.

Plan for the 136k is a UK-wide campaign calling for a national strategy to tackle youth homelessness—a crisis affecting over 135,800 young people (based on those who approached local councils for support in 2023).

As a studio dedicated to resourcing national movements, we partnered with the campaign coalition to create a high-performance visual system that could travel across the country. From billboards and banners to social media and digital toolkits, we built a brand that stayed readable at a glance while carrying the gravity of a national call to action.

Project Team

Branding: Cecilia Righini

Collateral Design: Cecilia Righini and Alaïs de Saint Louvent

Awards

Bronze Lovie and People’s Lovie Winner in Marketing, Advertising & PR: Public Service & Activism

The Challenge

The campaign needed to scale across vastly different formats: a billboard has seconds to land its point, while an advocacy toolkit needs to guide supporters through complex actions.

Our challenge was to communicate urgency and systemic failure without relying on “shock” imagery or sacrificing digital accessibility. We needed to build arepeatable infrastructure for several different organisations to use (143 in the end), ensuring the message remained undiluted no matter who was sharing it.

What We Did

We architected a campaign identity designed around one core principle: make the message impossible to miss.

Accessibility and clarity guided every decision. We built a high-contrast palette—bold red on a neutral background, supported by black and white text—utilising WCAG-compliant typography (Inter and Plus Jakarta Sans) to ensure legibility from a distance and across digital environments. We also structured layouts with a clear hierarchy, ensuring the campaign could be understood quickly.

Rather than creating isolated assets, we designed a cohesive campaign toolkit. This included friendly, straightforward PDF guides, social media graphics, and 3:1 format banners where the message was condensed into bold, dominant text for immediate impact, supported by consistent corner branding.

By treating photography as a tool for empathy, we used colour images to keep the campaign grounded in human stories and to help foster connection, acting as an intentional counterweight to the distancing effect of statistics.

Impact

This project is a definitive example of design as ‘a vehicle for change’.

By providing a repeatable system, we helped a coalition grow from 11 to 143 organisations across the UK. The campaign achieved massive visibility, contributing to a parliamentary petition of over 15,000 signatures and securing the first parliamentary debate (including the Greater London Assembly and the House of Lords) on youth homelessness in 40 years.

The work was recognised internationally with a 2024 Bronze Lovie Award and a People’s Lovie in Marketing, Advertising & PR (Branded Content—Public Service & Activism).

Ultimately, our strategic design supported a serious, systemic goal: bringing urgent attention to youth homelessness and shifting it toward a national priority, proving that inclusive digital infrastructure is the backbone of successful advocacy.

Red graphic displaying the text: Over 100 charities, 1 goal: A plan to end youth homelessness. #PlanForThe136k. In the foreground, a group of people are holding a protest sign that says ENOUGH.

White background featuring bold black text in the centre: #PlanForThe136k. In each corner, red blocks display the hashtag in white text.

Image showing five abstract shapes on a white background: a bold red starburst, a wavy green line, a zigzagged red rectangle, a pointy green triangle, and an edgy black starburst.

Image displaying font usage: 24% Plus Jakarta Sans Extra Bold used for titles or highlighted text. Plus Jakarta Sans Regular featured for body copy. Font pairing also shown. Captions use Plus Jakarta Sans Extra Bold Italic. Red asterisks highlight bold sections.

Six starburst icons against a green background, each bearing the text SIGN for the 136k in red, white, and black.

Five pages of a document titled Strategy to End Youth Homelessness, displaying text and graphics. The first page showcases a photo of a protest, with someone holding a sign saying END IT. The design features red accents and headings across all pages.

Three digital petition cards featuring the hashtags #YourVote and #TheirLife. Each card presents a message directed at young people, focusing on statistics, hope, and decisions. The cards encourage signing up for a worthwhile cause. The design is characterised by bold text and vibrant colours.

Three graphics featuring red and white backgrounds. Top left text reads: Were joining the campaign for a strategy to end youth homelessness. Top right text states: Life is never a single issue, nor is homelessness. Especially for young people. Bottom text says: Over 100 charities, 1 goal: end youth homelessness.

A bustling street with a blurred red double-decker bus zooming past. In the background, a modern glass building showcases a large digital billboard advertising a woman holding a mobile phone, with various shops behind the glass facade.

Text infographic on youth homelessness: 136,000 young people sought council help for homelessness last year. Highlights include 372 per day and 1 every 4 minutes. On the right, a person holds a sign stating: Our future on the line! #PlanForThe136k.

A large roadside billboard delivers a public service message about missing children. The scene includes a busy road with various vehicles, a speed limit sign, and bare trees in the background.

A bus stop on a city street showcases an advert addressing youth homelessness. The poster prominently displays a lengthy list of names at the top, presents statistics highlighting 136,000 young people experiencing homelessness, and includes an invitation to sign a petition to resolve the crisis.

A poster on a graffiti-covered wall lists various names and organisations backing a campaign. It underscores that 136,000 young people experience homelessness in the UK. A call to action urges individuals to sign a petition at planforthe136k.org.uk.