Zerofee. Good Thinking:

One of the many ben­e­fits of the donated design projects we under­take is the oppor­tu­nity to become aware of and get involved in cam­paigns and causes that might oth­er­wise slip under our radar.

The last quar­ter of 2009 saw us immersed in one such project, pro­duc­ing sup­port­ing typog­ra­phy for a har­row­ing sex-trafficking cam­paign film for The Jour­ney, in which the audi­ence fol­lows one girl’s sad plight.

Writ­ten and directed by Richard Job­son, pro­duced by Quiet Storm Films, and star­ring Emma Thomp­son, this shock­ing 15 minute short provoca­tively reveals the ugly real­ity behind this vile trade.

On this occa­sion, Zero­fee were asked to assist with the typo­graphic treat­ment of ten key phrases which described the impact of sex traf­fick­ing on its vic­tims. We ref­er­enced the style and qual­i­ties of ship­ping con­tainer mark­ings and infor­ma­tion, as these con­tain­ers are often used by traf­fick­ers as a form of trans­port to smug­gle many of these young women across Europe. These graph­ics were then, sen­si­tively, inte­grated and mapped into their envi­ron­ments by edi­tor, David Owen, and com­pos­i­tor, Nick Barnes.

The film can now be viewed on The Guardian web­site with our main con­tri­bu­tion seen around the 11:20 mark. The film is har­row­ing, graphic and not safe for work or chil­dren, so please be care­ful when and where you watch it. The typo­graphic treat­ment also found its way into Richard Ashcroft’s video for his sup­port­ing song from the film’s sound­track, seen around the 3:36 mark.