top of page
Iced Coffee
Search

Press Play on Progress | UN Women Digital Campaign by Kimberly Harper-Colucci | helloHarper Portfolio

  • Writer: Kimberly Harper-Colucci
    Kimberly Harper-Colucci
  • Nov 12, 2025
  • 3 min read

Unfinished Business Expansion

Project Overview


Client: UN Women

Campaign: Unfinished Business – Digital Expansion

Course: ADBR 150 | Fall 2025 | Professor Natasha Vasiljevic


Purpose

Extend the Unfinished Business campaign into social and digital media to restore urgency around gender equality within U.S. policy circles. Transform awareness into action.


Audience

U.S. policymakers, donors, and civic influencers (25–55) who believe in equality but assume progress is complete. They value data, impact, and credibility over emotion or donation-based appeals.


Objectives

  • Reignite momentum around gender equality in law and policy.

  • Reinforce UN Women as a driver of measurable reform.

  • Translate a paused narrative into participatory digital action.


Constraints

Tight timeline, limited original footage, AI-generated video elements for concept visualization.

Strategy


Insight

“We believe in equality — we just assume someone else is finishing the work.”


Positioning

For policy leaders who value results over rhetoric, UN Women is the force that turns promises into policy — pressing play where progress has stalled.


Approach

  • Expose the pause: Use stillness and interruption as metaphors for complacency.

  • Reignite motion: Leverage interactive and motion-based formats to symbolize renewed action.

  • Shift responsibility: Transform audience from observers to participants in finishing the work.

Execution


Visual System


Palette → Meaning → EffectMuted blues and whites reflect institutional trust and neutral authority; a flash of UN cyan signals reawakening. The calm palette keeps credibility intact while punctuating urgency.


Typography → Meaning → EffectGeometric sans serifs (clarity, truth) paired with high-contrast serif accents (gravitas, legacy). The pairing bridges policy formality and modern movement.


Grid & Motion → Meaning → EffectTight modular grids echo institutional order; intentional breaks mirror the theme of interruption. Subtle motion pauses and resumes — a visual metaphor for progress reclaiming momentum.


Executions

  • Social Video Series – Paused Progress: Cinematic stills freeze moments of policy action, then resume with the tagline “Progress that pauses is no progress at all.”

  • Interactive Banner Series – Interrupted Policy: Glitch and hover effects invite users to “finish the statement,” requiring action to complete the message.

  • Social Activation – Finish What We Started: Branded templates encourage participants to complete unfinished phrases and share their commitments under #UnfinishedBusiness.

Reflection


Three decisions defined this project’s resonance:


  1. Focusing on policy impact, not donations — aligning the message with influence rather than sympathy.

  2. Maintaining a confident, actionable voice — one that honors UN Women’s credibility while inviting accountability.

  3. Crafting cohesive motion and visual rhythm through After Effects and Photoshop to translate the concept of momentum visually.


Trade-off: AI-generated imagery replaced footage I could not shoot myself. While technically limiting, it demonstrated creative resourcefulness and conceptual clarity under constraint.


This project sharpened my strategic voice as a creative — bridging story, policy, and design to move an audience from belief to responsibility.


Press Play on Progress

Digital Campaign for UN Women – Unfinished Business Expansion


Project OverviewThe Unfinished Business digital expansion builds on UN Women’s legacy of truth-telling campaigns like HeForShe and Auto Complete Truth. This new phase reframes gender equality as an unfinished commitment — and invites the world to press play on what was paused.


Creative StrategyAudiences trust UN Women but believe the work is done. The campaign introduces “pause” as a visual metaphor for stalled progress, transforming that moment of stillness into a trigger for renewed motion.Through social video, interactive banners, and user-generated activations, the campaign asks one question: What if we finish what we started?


Design ExecutionMuted institutional tones anchor credibility. Cinematic pauses evoke reflection. Subtle motion and typographic interruption signal change resuming. The result — a campaign that turns awareness into accountability.


ReflectionBalancing clarity and emotion was key. This project taught me how to design for influence — crafting systems that move not just hearts, but policy.



Comments

bottom of page