Melissa Hill Graphic Design

SPLIT
SECOND

Raising the bar for TAC's youth film competition

Every year, Victoria's Transport Accident Commission (TAC) runs a competition for young people, created to help save young lives on the roads. Victorians aged 18–30 are invited to come up with an idea for a short film that helps to raise awareness of road safety issues and aims to change behaviours among young drivers.

Think HQ pitched to work on creating the visual identity of the 2024 Split Second competition. I worked in partnership with one of our young copy writers and we came up with these visual directions, designed to elevate the tone of the competition to be on par with the multitude of other arts and culture related events that we see constantly in Melbourne.

We wanted the designs to look ultra contemporary and cutting edge to show the young entrants that this is a serious film competition, not just a government promo.

Direction 1

Direction 1 is high energy, with a bold colour palette and layouts created by slicing the page into fragments, the resulting shards reminiscent of a cracked windscreen. The high contrast, bold, condensed type used for headlines creates a clear hierarchy in communications.

Split Second Direction 1, tramstop advertisement

Split Second Direction 1, website entry page

Concept 2

Young adults are more sophisticated than we give them credit for. Although this is a youth competition, the target audience are not children, they're aged 18–30. At this age, particularly in Melbourne, young people are visiting art exhibitions, live theatre, a world class film festival and comedy festival, live music of all genres, and cultural events from across the globe. Direction 2 takes the sophistication up a notch, positioning the Split Second competition as a serious film contest, to be taken as seriously as MIFF.