HPC - National Strategy for Salt Reduction Brunei Darussalam
2023
Corporate
Shaking Up Brunei’s Salt Habits
The Salt Reduction Team at the Health Promotion Centre (HPC) has been on a mission to reduce Brunei’s salt intake, as part of the larger national goal to reduce the mortality rate from non-communicable diseases and increase the quality of life in Brunei.
After the success of our collaborations with HPC in creating the National Physical Activity Guidelines booklet and the Mental Health awareness project led by the non-profit organisation JIWA, the Salt Reduction Team approached AICREATIVV to create a book and an executive summary that outlined the “National Salt Reduction Strategy 2023-2030”, whose efforts they’ve spent developing spanned over almost a decade. While the strategy contained a lot of information, tables and data, our challenge was to translate the findings and strategies into visual information that the general public can easily absorb and understand.
The “National Salt Reduction Strategy 2023-2030” is both an awareness campaign and a guide to reducing salt intake.
Adding Spice to Statistics
The “National Salt Reduction Strategy 2023-2030” is both an awareness campaign and a guide to reducing salt intake, containing a plethora of research done on the relationship between salt intake and non-communicable diseases, on both a global and national scale. Reasonably, organising the mounds of data and information into a logical structure became a major challenge. As a solution, we took inspiration from the existing design guide that was developed in previous collaborations with HPC to colour code the topics into distinct sections. This allowed readers to easily navigate through the content and quickly find the information they needed.
While we were eager to make the book visually appealing, it was important to the HPC team that the significance of the facts and figures are not lost in the illustrations. In order to bring emphasis to the figures, we used data visualisation: using charts and diagrams, from heat maps to pie charts, to visually lay out the data in such a way that the overall message can be derived from patterns. By playing with the colour tones within each diagram, we were able to display information in ways beyond numbers, providing readers with a less mentally demanding method of comprehending the information.
Additionally, we used typographic hierarchy to organise information, making it easier to absorb and understand. By altering the shapes, type weight, and type sizes, and pairing information with illustrations as a visual aid, readers could easily engage with data presented and grasp the key insights that we aimed to convey.
A Perfect Blend Between Classic and Modern
The main theme of the book was the five strategic goals set by the Ministry of Health and the Health Promotion Centre in order to reach the salt reduction target by 2030. The process from design to execution was highly collaborative, a two-way communication stream kept open with the Salt Reduction team at HPC, so that Brunei can achieve these strategic goals with a book that was both informative and visually appealing. In the executive summary, standalone pages were dedicated to each goal, with bold, yet simple illustrations to represent them. These goals, along with messages of progress and aspiration, were amplified and emphasised, highlighting their importance and the urgency to act on them.
With the research to back it up, the team at HPC are hopeful for the future of Brunei, and this hope was reflected in the design for the book cover. With the help of officials, we combined elements of the Bruneian culture and the book’s contents, keeping with the traditional and classic style of Brunei’s publications. The focal point of the book cover was Brunei’s national flower, the *simpur*, adopting a minimalistic, flat, and bold design style. The flower was also used as a recurring pattern on the front and back cover, creating a cohesive and visually pleasing design to capture the audience’s attention.
The Sweet Success of Salt Reduction
The final product is the result of the collaborative efforts between highly creative and passionate individuals who understand the significance of the national strategy for the wellbeing of Brunei’s citizens in the near future. Despite being a data-heavy publication, we were able to simplify the complex information and present it in a visually engaging way using data visualisation and illustrations across many topics and pieces of research.
The years spent planning and developing the “National Salt Reduction Strategy 2023-2030” have paid off with the publication of a book that will serve as a guide and reference for the rest of the decade. Now mass produced and shared across the country, we hope that this book brings value to our society, and makes a major impact in moving Brunei’s citizens towards a central goal and a healthier life.
Roles
Design by Imamull Qhaeer and Iman Shamsuddin of AICREATIVV
Content provided by the HPC Salt Reduction Team
