Tendencies of 2020: The 12 months of Authorities Design
If you've been thinking about government design or communications before 2020, you may have landed on gov.uk, a great example of how design has helped government communicate openly, accessible and straightforward with its citizens.
Since that key work by the Government Digital Service in 2012, the relationship between the UK government and the design and communications industries seems to have been fairly quiet, and nothing enormously remarkable is happening. Until a pandemic occurs.
Suddenly, the government's public message was more important than it had been since the world wars. So did it deliver the kind of simple, clear communication that has garnered GDS so many awards in the past? Let's take a trip back into the past nine months to find out …
AT THE BEGINNING
Above and above: UK spring coronavirus news. Images: Shutterstock
When Boris Johnson gave his first speech on March 23, urging UK citizens to stay home, protect the NHS, save lives, it already felt like the UK was facing the number of positive cases of coronavirus Lie on your back is going to rise exponentially and most other European nations are already locked.
This simple nine word message was clear and to the point, although it lacked finesse. The blunt slogan, a series of three-word statements, was also in line with the other three-word slogans – Take Back Control, Get Brexit Done – that have been defining the UK in recent years with this brazen, instructive approach to pandemic messaging from off.