Substance Abuse on Campus

This pair of whiteboard animations was commissioned by Student Health and Wellbeing at Newcastle University to support students around alcohol and drug use on campus. One focuses on responsible drinking, the other on drug use, and the drug animation deliberately takes a harm-reduction approach: meeting students where they are with clear, non-judgemental information rather than simply telling them not to.

Newcastle has been one of the more forward-thinking universities on student substance use, moving away from a purely zero-tolerance line towards education and harm reduction, an approach reflected in its ongoing Student Health and Wellbeing support. Animations like these can open up a stigmatised subject in a way that feels approachable, so students actually take the information in rather than tuning out.

These are the kind of topics that can easily come across as dry or preachy, so I used whiteboard animation with a limited but bright colour palette and a stylised aesthetic to give the films energy and warmth while keeping the message clear and credible. They’re among my earlier pieces for Newcastle, and they sit alongside the later student wellbeing work I went on to make for the university, my consent animation and my drink spiking animation, which moved into a different illustrated style with a recurring cast of characters. Finding a tone that informs without lecturing is something I’ve cared about across all of my animation work with universities and researchers.

If you’re a university, students’ union or organisation working on student wellbeing, public health or harm reduction and you’d like to bring a sensitive subject to life through animation, I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch.