A self-proclaimed wearer of many different hats, Janie Vinson (they/she), the Senior Designer at Bridge HIV, says they handle “pretty much anything” graphic design-related for the organization. Vinson has worked in HIV prevention for more than 20 years and has carved out a niche mixing their passions for social justice with art and design.
Bridge HIV has been a part of the fight against HIV/AIDS since the beginning, providing some of the foundational data around the leading risk factors and the most common signs of disease progression. Now housed within the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the organization continues the search for innovative solutions for HIV prevention.
In their role as Senior Designer at Bridge HIV, Vinson plays a crucial role in the organization’s work. Vinson has created numerous ad campaigns for Bridge HIV that can be seen on BART and Muni (San Francisco’s metro and bus systems, respectively), along with other print and digital materials all aimed at reducing the stigma of HIV and getting people involved in the organization’s research.
“One of the campaigns I’m most proud of is called ‘People Like You’,” shares Vinson. “The idea came from a focus group when someone asked, kind of negatively, ‘Who would volunteer for these studies?’ Our response was ‘People just like you, your neighbors, your schoolmates, your family, your friends’. That’s how the campaign started.”
(Bridge HIV’s “People Like You” campaign designed by Vinson)
Effective communication plays a key role in public health, shaping how organizations connect with the communities they serve. Through their work, Vinson does more than just design posters, create websites, and recruit research participants—they build trust, raise awareness about HIV prevention, and empower people to take action.
“These campaigns are crucial to our success as a research organization”, shares Juwann Moss, Senior Study Coordinator at Bridge HIV. “First and foremost, these outreach and advertisement campaigns serve as a potent tool for us to raise awareness about the research studies that we are conducting here at Bridge HIV and to cultivate interest in that research. More broadly, through these advertising and media campaigns, we are able to educate the public about the importance of research, various types of research ongoing and the tools that we have for preventing HIV. As it turns out, Janie’s advertisements and campaigns have been so successful that larger research networks have found Janie’s work to be more potent than their own advertisements and so they have opted to use our ads because they are innovative and speak to broad communities.”
(Bridge HIV’s Covid-19 vaccine study campaign art directed by Vinson)
(SF Unity study posters designed by Vinson)
Bridge HIV’s work is vital to public health, not only in supporting HIV prevention efforts, but in contributing to breakthroughs for other major health crises, too. “Everything we’ve learned in the last 20 years that hasn’t worked for HIV actually gave us methods and information that we could use to find a COVID-19 vaccine”, shares Vinson. “We have had a lot of what most people would consider failures, but that work is not really in vain. We learn something new every time we do it.”
Vinson shares that their motivations for showing up to work each day range from the specific campaigns they’re working on to the current political climate and the challenge of learning new art skills, but that the core of their work always remains the same: making a positive difference for communities they care about.
“I participated in a mentorship program through the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) years ago and found out that not only had one of my fellow participants been a part of a Bridge HIV study, but it was an ad that I designed that convinced them to call”, shares Vinson. “That’s why I do this. It’s rewarding to know that me sitting behind my desk can actually have an influence on making peoples’ lives better.”
Click here to learn more about Bridge HIV’s work.
