Digital prevention services portfolio (DPSP) – the wider team I work for, has summer and winter events. An opportunity for everyone to get together.

I missed the summer event, because I had Covid. At the event, there was a 10 minute competition to design a DPSP sticker, I’m not exactly sure of the brief, but I think something to do with representing the portfolio.

I knew this would come my way the second I heard about it. Initially I was very reluctant, this is not how I would choose to design something. But after seeing what my colleagues had come up with, the idea of turning one of the unhinged designs into something more refined sounded like it could be fun.

The stickers were then voted on by everyone. These two stickers were the joint winners.

Hand-drawn sticker design with cupped hands holding a rainbow circle containing a heart, building, phone, medical cross, and stick figures
Hand-drawn shield design with DNA helix, heart, syringe, and the words Digital Prevention

Sadly for me these were two of the more sane designs.

After a few sketches, the visual language of heraldry felt like a good fit. Starting with a shield as the base and then throwing as many things as possible at it, felt appropriate.

Pencil sketch of an ornate heraldic crest with hands holding a heart, banner reading Digital Prevention Services, and decorative flourishes
Pencil sketch of a shield crest with NHS logo, search icon, heart monitor, syringe, hands holding heart, and Digital Prevention Services banner
Refined pencil sketch of shield crest with NHS helmet, DNA helixes, corn cobs, magnifying glass, crossed syringes, hands holding heart, and Digital Prevention Services banner

I then started building it in Illustrator. I save and create a new file anytime I’m going to do something irreversible. These are some of the stages.

Early vector version: basic shield shape with NHS logo, lungs, heart, and Digital prevention services banner
Vector iteration: pink outlined shield with icons for search, health check, syringe, hands holding heart, and empty banner
Vector iteration: simple blue glossy shield with heart icon
Vector iteration: blue glossy shield with squiggle motif, heart, and hands
Vector iteration: outlined shield with NHS logo, coloured icons for search, health check, syringe, hands holding heart
Vector iteration: blue shield with NHS logo, heart and hands, with blank blue ribbon banner
Vector iteration: blue shield with NHS logo, pink heart, hands, DNA helixes surrounding, pink ribbon with Digital Prevention Services text and Estd. 2024
Vector iteration: adding pink lungs above the shield with DNA helixes and pink border
Vector iteration: simplified pink and blue design with shield, heart, syringe, and three stacked banners reading Digital Prevention Services
Vector iteration: pink intestines framing the shield, lungs on top, syringe to the side, Digital Prevention Services banners
Vector iteration: bold yellow shield with NHS logo, squiggle motif, hands holding heart, sparkles, and Digital prevention services ribbon
Vector iteration: yellow shield with pink intestines as mantling, NHS logo, syringes, squiggle, hands holding heart, bowels, blue background
Vector iteration: yellow shield with rainbow stripe behind NHS logo, blue heart, syringes, squiggle, hands, Digital prevention services blue ribbon
Final sticker design: yellow shield with rainbow, NHS logo, syringe, square root symbol, magnifying glass icons, blue heart with hands, blue ribbons reading Digital prevention services, light blue background
Photo of the printed sticker on a MacBook laptop

This is the final sticker. People seemed happy with it. I’m happy contributing to our culture and happy the sticker is finished.