The water supply of Flint, Michigan was tainted with lead from corroding pipes when the city switched their water supply from the Detroit River to the Flint river in 2015. A major problem that was noticed is that not a whole lot of media coverage was focused on that topic. People knew that something was going on in Flint but did not know the severity of the situation. This social design project focused on making a campaign that both created awareness and raised funds.
It began with the idea of plastic water bottles sold in stores that were made with green plastic and ‘warning’ labels. The bottles would raise awareness while also raising funds. Then the idea to bring the warning labels to more public places like drinking fountains came up so labels for water fountains were created to bring awareness to the issue. The metal water bottle is available to buy from the website and the proceeds go to Flint.
To bring the pieces of the project together I designed a website where people could go visit to get more information about this ongoing issue and learn how they could help. The main header has a time clock to give a visual passage of time since the first signs of water poisoning.
Overall I aimed to deliver straightforward and easy to digest information so people would not feel overwhelmed with information. By splitting the ways to help in to two simple processes it would encourage people to engage in this campaign and become a part of a movement.