MANI - Suicide Notes
A suicide prevention campaign for the Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative.
Overview
Suicide Notes is a campaign by X3M Ideas for the Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI), created to encourage people experiencing suicidal thoughts to seek help before reaching a crisis.
The initial concept came from our creative lead.
I translated that direction into the final campaign visual, developing the 3D execution, visual language and finished artwork. The campaign won Gold at the 2021 Luum Awards in Geneva.
My Role
Senior Art Director, X3M Ideas.
The core concept, a message built from a folded-paper sculpture, came from our creative lead. Translating it into a finished visual was the open problem, and that was mine to solve.
I designed the 3D paper sculpture, shaped the direction into lips formed from suicide-note text, integrated the sourced notes, and completed the modelling, compositing and retouching.
The Brief
Create a campaign visual for MANI that moves people to speak up before reaching crisis. It had to carry an extremely sensitive subject with weight and restraint, and stay memorable without disturbing imagery.
The Challenge
Suicide is one of the hardest subjects to put on a billboard. The work had to convey real emotional pain without graphic content that audiences would avoid or that could harm vulnerable viewers.
The concept existed, but not the execution. Nobody had cracked how to turn a folded-paper idea into a single image that would land with the emotional force the subject demanded. That translation was the real challenge, and it was mine.
The text also had to feel genuine. We used excerpts from real suicide notes, sourced legally from a public archive, and they had to sit naturally across the folded form while reading as authentic.
Insight
People often write the things they never say out loud.
The Idea
I developed the paper direction into a pair of lips folded from suicide-note text. The lips are the voice a person still has. The notes are the words they never spoke aloud. Together they carry the line the campaign is built on: "Don't bury your voice in a suicide note."
Design Decisions
Why fold notes into lips? Lips mean speaking. A suicide note is the place too many people leave words they never shared. Folding one into the other turns the note into a symbol of the voice that should have been heard first.
Why avoid showing a person? A face makes it one person's story. Paper lips let any viewer see themselves, or someone they love, which makes the message universal.
Why 3D? The folded paper needed real depth and believable light to hold the illusion at billboard scale. Modelling it in Cinema 4D let every fold and shadow read as physical before the text went on in post.
Why the dark background? It isolates the pale sculpture, raises contrast, and pulls the eye straight to the message with nothing competing.
Process
The sculpture was modelled in Cinema 4D before being taken into Photoshop, where I integrated the handwritten notes, refined the lighting and texture, and completed the final compositing and retouching.
Campaign Rollout
Social media, billboards and newspaper.
Results
Gold, 2021 Luum Awards, Geneva, a global festival recognising creative work that raises social, civic or environmental awareness. Created by X3M Ideas for MANI.