Molly May
BDes (Hons) Graphic Design
Dress to Excess
Dress to Excess is a campaign that encourages individuals to take a critical look at their clothing and shopping habits.
Expressive artwork softens the seriousness of the topic, making it more accessible and engaging. The campaign communicates primarily through a printed booklet, posters, a comic, and merchandise, each designed to spark conversation and reflection while keeping the message light, approachable, and fun.
Dress to Excess does not aim to make anyone feel ashamed or guilty. It invites you to break free from the fast fashion cycle, embrace better choices, and find satisfaction in doing more with less.
The inspiration for this project came from my own habits when it came to shopping, I had too much, yet continued to buy more. Everything I saw online to help cut down used environmental reasoning and shame tactics – I wanted my project to be different, to be fun and something you would want to share with others.
Posters use clothing-based illustration and bold headings that aim to inspire introspection.
The Beyond Retail Therapy booklet and Fashion Police comic are the primary artefacts in this campaign.
Interviews were key when developing the project, I wanted to showcase some of the personal stories and insights I gained into the problem. This is there to make people feel as though they are not the only ones that may struggle with excessive clothes buying.
Illustrations are the foundation of the visual language and help to show the light-hearted tone that is so key to the campaign’s success.
Through a variety of smaller artefacts the message is spread across different mediums, I wanted to keep it paper-based as I found that my target audience (adults above the age of 30) prefer to engage with tactile media - to best absorb the content.
The NOT Loyalty cards and door hangers are a few examples of these physical pieces meant to make viewers smile and break up the monotony of paper based brochures.
Overall the project is meant to replicate some of the visual cues seen in retail culture, to get the attention of the same people that fall victim to fashion advertising.
