80% of all cancer diagnoses in New Zealand are for Melanoma. If left untreated it can rapidly spread to other parts of the body. But there’s a very good chance of survival if you catch it early enough.

But often the only symptom is a new spot or a subtle change to an existing spot, which many people pay no attention to.

To draw attention to this, we created a typeface that consists of only full stops: The Melanoma Typeface. The font was designed with a leading typographer and a dermatologist to accurately represent melanoma, with each weight depicting a different symptom. And just like a real melanoma, it changed in response to UV light.

To mirror the existing behaviour that people have with spots on their skin, we hid our spots in ads for some of the biggest brands in the country. Designed for people to notice- or not.

The Melanoma typeface was designed with a leading typographer to be a working font that can be used alongside any other brand’s typeface.

We gave our Melanoma Typeface to some of the nation’s biggest brands to use for two weeks in their summer advertising. The spots appeared in ads for a Coca-Cola product, New Zealand Lotteries, the national Weather bureau, a summer festival and the largest out of home advertising organisation in the country.

Our media placements allowed us to use live UV data to affect our spots so that when the UV index was at a dangerous level, our spots appeared at their most mutated.

This ensured that we could be where people were over the summer, delivering the message when it’s most relevant- when the sun is at its most dangerous.

By drawing attention to these usually benign spots we prompted people to take a closer look at their own, as well as learn more about what to look for when it comes to skin changes.

After two weeks we switched to our brand messaging: Don’t let a spot become a full stop, outlining the warning signs for melanoma and reinforcing the importance of regular skin checks.