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Looking for a fare playing field for women's sport - using buses

Looking for a fare playing field for women's sport - using buses

Heroes are set to emerge at the FIFA Women's World Cup and a pair of Buckinghamshire New University students say they have just the idea to harness the achievements of stars to inspire the next generation.

Remi Hardy and Helen Giles, who study BA (Hons) Creative Advertising, have won an award thanks to their proposal to work with adidas and use London buses to promote women sports stars.
 

Remi Hardy and Helen Giles sat side by side holding a laptop which shows off their work

The pair are among winners in the adidas section at the D&AD New Blood Awards, for new designers, with their entry, The Headlines They Deserve, winning a Graphite Pencil. They say were their ideas to become reality they could spark enthusiasm among young women.

“Young people need role models as they are a vital part of inspiring success,” said Remi.

“However, there aren’t enough role models in women’s sports. This is not because they don’t exist but because we believe they have been neglected by the media."

Remi and Helen have cited research by the organisation Totally Runable which found that less than three per cent of photographs of sport in nine national newspapers examined between July 2017 and June 2018 showed women playing sport.

Totally Runable found 3,107 pictures of people playing sport, and of those five were men and women playing together, 3,011 were of men, and just 91 were of women.

An image of a female boxer on the design of a bus

“Astonishingly, we are 33 times more likely to see a man playing sport in the newspapers than a woman,” added Remi and Helen.

“There are loads of interesting sports women out there whose stories needed to be heard but it needs to be done in an interesting and memorable way.

“If hundreds of newsworthy stories from sportswomen are not making headlines how are young girls going to get the motivation they need to participate in sports?

“Our proposal would be for adidas to stand against what we perceive as media gender bias by using London buses to share the unheard stories from the previous year.

Three drawings of london buses with adidas advertising on

“As adidas is a city brand they required the campaign to target city girls. We wanted these sportswomen’s stories to be seen so we began thinking of what Londoners see the most - buses!

“Buses would be perfect for our idea because they are a cheap way to get around London, they travel to all parts of London, and school children get them daily.”

See Remi and Helen's work at Bucks New University’s Art & Design Summer Show from 14-15 June and 16-19 June.

Remi is also among commended entries at the YCN Student Awards, for a brief working with KFC. 

The Art & Design Summer Show is open from 10am-2pm and 5pm-7pm on Friday 14 June; from 10am-4pm on Saturday 15 June; and from 10am-2pm and 5pm-7pm on Monday 17 June; Tuesday 18 June; and Wednesday 19 June.

BA (Hons) Graphic Design student Magda Wachowicz won a competition to design the branding which accompanies promotion of this year’s Show.

Public visitors to the Show should report to the University’s reception, where they will be shown round by a student. For more details on the Art & Design Summer Show follow #bucksshow19 on social media for developments.