NIA Lasam of High Wycombe and two other North Metropolitan TAFE design students have come up with a winning campaign promoting seatbelt safety to young people.

The campaign created by Ms Lasam and her fellow students – Naru Arai and Kyuree Kim –appeared on digital displays during September including on a billboard along Stirling Highway in Claremont.

Their design was selected as part of the 2025 Re:act road safety program’s TAFE category in WA.

Re:act gives young people the opportunity to develop behaviour change campaigns that positively influence their peers and the community they live in.

Ms Lasam said Re:act do campaign awareness for road safety every year, with this year’s theme “specifically for 17 to 25-year-old drivers and how that was a typical age for people to be quite fearful, kind of slightly reckless’’.

She said while young people were excited to start driving at the same time there were also some 17 to 25-year-old drivers who thought they didn’t need seat belts.

“So we had to find a way to relate to that demographic and find a way to design something that would make them change their mind.

“The only way we could even achieve that was to get their ideas as well.

“It was a really long journey of us getting in touch with people personally.

“We spoke to 20 people around the city – all between 17 to 25-years-old.

“They told us their stories, what they’ve heard from other people as well and they have said that there are people out there who think wearing a seat belt is not cool.’’

Ms Kim said the campaign was quite different to the other projects in their study where they mainly focused on the design aesthetics or visual elements.

“But this one was more towards the psychological things as this is a public campaign.

“So the majority of our time we spent on researching and then we had a proper structure from the beginning until the end, until the launch.’’

They chose the different media, the type of survey and then the interview method.

“And then when we came up with the idea, which is the messaging, in the campaign, in the design, we had to go through a lot of a lot of ideation and development.

“This is usually not part of our job as a designer but this was a lot about the target audience, and then the people we’re aiming for through the campaign and then the messaging itself.’’

She said they were glad and grateful their project was chosen and for the launched public campaign.

Ms Arai said they learnt a lot from the project with all the researching and the design equipment so they probably know what they would have to do for the next project.

But they could probably do better with researching and time management as well as who to interview.

Road Safety commissioner Adrian Warner said the commission’s partnership with Re:act was twofold, it supported the next generation of young designers while delivering targeted messaging to some of the state’s most at-risk road users.

“Empowering our young people to be leaders amongst their own peers is one of the best tools we have to deliver road safety messaging where it’s needed most,” he said.

“Having their design highlighted on a billboard is a great career-boosting opportunity and I congratulate the students on their hard-earned efforts.”

Since launching in 2016, Re:act has engaged almost 1600 students and 70 partners across four continents, with more than 57 million people around the world having seen campaigns created by young people.