Review of NYC’s New Free Condom Designs

Back in 2008 our friend and colleague Yves Behar worked with the New York City Health Department to bring a new look and attitude towards condoms. The result was smashing success. The distribution of condoms has more than doubled since before NYC introduced their own brand.

Yves design of the condom wrapper and custom dispenser was a donation to the city of NY.

Recently we got wind that NY was looking to redo this successful icon in order to keep the campaign “fresh.” Their attempt this time was not to reach out to another designer for an in kind partnership but rather to open it up to the masses to create and vote on their favorite solutions.

The request was for designs that “reflect New York City’s distinctive culture and style while also promoting safer sex.” These are the resulting finalist solutions.

What do you think of the final solutions?  I found them to be clever, but not “distinctively New York.”

MSLK does not participate in competitions and often feels that spec solutions and competitions produces conceptually and graphically “thin” work. We believe that engaging a specific design team in even pro-bono work, such as Yves donation to the city, is a more effective way of arriving at a solution. Off-the-cuff, free suggestions are just that, off-the-cuff. Real breakthroughs come with polish and consideration.

Either way you can lend your opinion to the final outcome by voting here.