Homeless youth is forced to learn how to cope with all sorts of situations—some of which verge on the utterly preposterous. The idea behind “The street doesn’t come with instructions” fundraising campaign is to shake up people’s consciences about the harsh reality of homeless youth.

To rejuvenate DANS LA RUE donor’s profile, we created a bold and playful visual language that speaks to a younger audience and stands out from the bias associated with “sensitive” causes.

Since there is no manual to eat, sleep or get psychological help in the street, with simple storytelling about real-life situations, we reminded people that homeless are truly left alone without the help of DANS LA RUE. An unexpected and quirky way to raise donations and address this social issue.

Since it is forbidden to show the “real” faces of homeless youth to protect their identities, we needed a way to establish a certain authenticity to reach people about a very legitimate issue. To address that, 3 non-gender animated characters were created to highlight the major difficulties they have to face every day: the need for shelter, food aid and mental support.

Those animations are a hybrid between motion design and traditional animation. This minimalist approach, including halftone patterns, wiggly outlines and the use of the 3 colours of DANS LA RUE’s brand, is deliberately meant to evoke very street-rooted design. An artistic choice that also symbolizes the roughness of the homeless life.

In these absurd “slices of life”, offbeat music and cartoonish sound design support the action of our likeable characters; the story unfolds and the feel-good effect stops to let dark humor take all the place. A quick slap in the face to let the audience know that homeless youth—even if displayed in an absurd and playful way—is a serious concern.