For four months in 2022, a van parked in San Diego County’s La Frontera neighborhood displayed a big, bright drawing of a sunflower in full bloom, with a bold red heart in its center and a black arrow extending upward. Curious passersby would stop and ask what was happening in the van. And with that, the logo for the RADx-UP LinkUP project had done its job — engaging potential participants.

The goal of the LinkUP project was to encourage COVID-19 testing and vaccination among people who inject drugs, employing a combination of education, motivational interviewing, problem-solving, and ongoing support from trained peer counselors. The project was led by a collaboration between researchers from the University of California San Diego and local community partner “OnPoint,” which is a mobile safe syringe program run by the Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego (HRCSD).

Tara Stamos-Buesig, HRCSD’s founder and CEO, believes that the right visuals can set the tone that helps people feel comfortable, respected, and open to having these kinds of conversations. So she wanted to create this kind of welcoming logo for LinkUP.

The LinkUP logo is actually a variation of the logo first created for the OnPoint program. Recalling her personal inspiration for that original logo, Tara said, “A girl who used our syringe program once brought me some sunflowers she had cut from the side of the road and told me, ‘I just want this to be the joy in your life today because you are the only joy in mine.’ That always stuck with me.”

To bring her sunflower vision to life, Tara had called on her friend and artist Shannon Knox, who also works in the harm reduction community. “Shannon's artwork has always been something that's driven by very personal experiences and interactions and has a lot of love and passion and meaning behind it.”

“It was nice that [the sunflower] wasn't too indicative of what we were doing, but it was very welcoming. It was very original and people could identify it,” Tara said. Not surprisingly, Shannon was Tara’s first call again when she needed the LinkUP variation.

Shannon’s new LinkUP logo was used in several ways in addition to the van. Logo stickers on HRCSD clients’ ID cards identified OnPoint clients who also participated in the LinkUP study, which was important for data collection purposes. It was also used on other signage for community events.

A logo can make a real difference to public health research. Shannon, the logo’s artist, noted that “a well-intentioned, thoughtfully designed logo establishes a sense of commitment to a project. It also helps keep our efforts alive in people’s minds for longer. It’s a reminder that we’re doing our work on a very personal level.” Those attributes can inspire the kind of community trust that leads to engagement, participation, and acceptance.

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The RADx-UP CDCC is starting a collection of logos from all projects that used them. We invite you to share yours with us via this form.