Connected Families
Barnardo’s
Role: Creative & Art Direction, Character Design, Illustration, Comic Strip Production, Storyboarding, Animation Production
Brief
So much online safety content for children and families gets it wrong. Scary, tense, and often ending up blaming the child. Barnardo’s wanted something completely different. They needed a series of animations and communications to help parents and children talk openly about staying safe online, using recognisable everyday situations as conversation starters rather than warnings.
Approach
The characters were central to everything. Each one was rooted in real-life research and scenarios developed by Barnardo's, grounded in situations families would actually recognise. The scenarios cover difficult subjects, including pornography, social media addiction, and online exploitation, all handled in a way that feels honest, human, and relatable. I designed and illustrated all the characters and scenes, produced comic strips, and art-directed a series of eight animations from concept, through to completion.
Animations
Porn, bodies and sex – the parents: Two parents discuss their worries about their son watching online porn
Porn, bodies and sex – the children: Following on from the previous animation, the parents’ children have mixed feelings about the addictive nature of social media and pornography.
Our message to tech: All the parents use a Zoom meeting to talk directly to big tech, urging these companies to create safe and inclusive spaces for all children and young people.
Character and design development
Outcome
The animations and comic strips were rolled out across Barnardo's website and social media, and compiled into a resource pack used to train professionals in schools and institutions that work with young people. The work reached families, children, and practitioners alike, sparking some of the most difficult but necessary conversations around online safety. A body of work designed not just to inform but to genuinely educate and empower everyone navigating these issues.