Consent Soap provides sex education for people with learning disabilities

Students from Indonesia's Binus University have won a White Pencil at this year's D&AD New Blood Awards for their colour-coded soaps, designed to teach vulnerable users about consent.

Elva Gracia, Maverick Lee, Lestat Kane and Allya Malaikha developed Consent Soap in response to a brief calling for educational tools that could help to give people with Down's and Fragile X syndrome agency over their sexual intimacy.

The students from Binus University in Jakarta developed a concept that involves three colour-coded soaps for different parts of the body, designating them as "okay to touch", "private", or for "trusted help only".

Nine out of ten people with intellectual and developmental disabilities will experience some form of sexual assault in their lifetime, according to the brief set for the students by healthcare agency 21 Grams.

People with Down's and Fragile X syndrome in particular face the highest rates of sexual misconduct, largely due to a lack of comprehensive education and limited understanding of consent.

Consent Soap was designed to help caregivers make sexual education a natural part of routine care, as repetition using simple language and visual cues is considered the best way to engage users with learning challenges.

The red soap is for private areas that no one else should touch, the yellow bar is for semi-private areas where trusted people may assist, and the green soap is for areas that can be touched but only with consent.

Embossed illustrations on the soap bars provide a visual and tactile representation of each soap's purpose, helping to reinforce the message in a playful and accessible way.

The project also includes a dedicated website with expert resources and tools relating to consent and boundaries that can be accessed using a QR code printed on the box.

The annual New Blood Awards are organised by educational charity D&AD to celebrate outstanding work by students, recent graduates and aspiring creatives in the advertising, design and marketing fields.

The briefs are set by real clients, and entrants are judged by leading industry figures who award Pencils in various tiers. White Pencils are awarded to projects focused on driving behavioural, environmental, societal or policy change.

D&AD also operates its professional awards, with previous winners including a bandage pack containing a bone marrow donor registry kit and a statue of a defiant young girl installed in front of the iconic Charging Bull on Wall Street.

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