Camden Conversations

This project was commissioned by Camden Council to share their story of developing a specific service, and to promote it more widely to central government and within academia. I really enjoyed this project but never blogged about it at the time so putting it up here now.

The story was told through the storyboard below, I also used all the various faces to create a logo that had multiple combinations.

The brief was to represent values of equality and an adult to adult relationship, and also represent the diverse mix of people who inhabit Camden. I used the overlapping speech bubble as a symbol of the overlapping wishes of both sides - this is especially obvious in the last image below!

COVID-19 Restrictions are ending in England

 ...but rates are still soaring in other parts of the UK, especially Scotland. How are you feeling about this?

I was asked by a local disability charity to illustrate their members' thoughts around the ending of restrictions. I think I'm more on the cautious side still, but I am glad things are slowly getting back to normal.

This is in case you're wondering about the working process: I start with a briefing call with clients about the job, what they're trying to achieve/say, who their audience is and what are the outputs that they want to use, this includes what medium (print/digital) and the size and dimensions of the image. They supply the material that they want me to illustrate usually in written form and from all of that information I suggest a format/layout like a solution to a design brief.

I then draw up a rough and then go through this on a call to make sure I'm using the right kind of imagery, so just sharing my 'roughs' below. I also ask for information about representation and usually some form of reference material so I get the right age and background of the people being drawn.

Future Vision for a Rural County

I was asked by Herefordshire council to visualise the future vision of the county - the vision statements came out of the 4 day citizen's assembly that people took part in during January 2022, while we were all still locked in our little screens on Zoom.

Lots of passionate debate and some great suggestions. Even though I'm based miles away I really could grasp the local pride people feel for the area and how much people want to protect and enhance nature and everything that's good about Herefordshire. I'm definitely going to visit soon!
 

Citizens Assembly on Climate Change

The summary findings from Herefordshire's assembly I've drawn up here, in the form of Transport, Land-Use and Buildings. Amazing how many ideas were generated and voted on over one weekend on Zoom!

There were a lot of calls for education on biodiversity, community support, and broader funding for all sorts of schemes, from retrofitting to decarbonising community transport. I really hope that as much as possible of this comes to fruition.

The Social Innovation Partnership

This was a celebration event to share and hold on to the work done by people in Walworth to research local needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, in partnership with TSIP https://www.tsip.co.uk/. The research period was 18 months and could be extended if we end up with a more virulent variant than the current one (Omicron).

Lots of inspiring stories and people there! Thanks to Daniel Morris and Keisha Simms for asking me to be there to record the two events using words and images.

 

FLARE logo design

I was asked by a London local authority to create a logo for a parenting group that comes together to discuss ways of safeguarding children in southeast London. They are looking to expand and wanted a visual identity to help with that.

The local group name is FLARE and they wanted to reflect the friendly and inclusive nature of the group in their logo, and also welcome fathers and people from all backgrounds.

Process for logo designs: I have a briefing call with the client/s, and as it was in January 2022 this was done over Zoom. My questions focussed on the aims of the group and how they wanted to be depicted and what they wanted to amplify. 

I usually sketch and share ideas while we speak to help with the process. Then I go away and have a think, add colour and then share and wait for client feedback.

Depending on the feedback I iterate once further if needed, or else move on to drawing up the final design.

This time was a straightforward process and went from this little sketch, on to the coloured version below, and then to the final version above.

National Voices - Storytelling for 'Voices for Improvement'

This was a collaborative project with the charity National Voices https://www.nationalvoices.org.uk/

National Voices have undergone a significant change process in order to bring more experts-by-experience into their organisation, and they wanted to document the journey they've been on, as they now offer a coaching and mentoring service for other organisations. This is the story of 'Voice for Improvement':

Process: we met and I was talked through the brief. I showed various examples of how to tackle telling the story/presenting the information. In the end, because it was quite a lot of info we opted for 3 separate storyboards. The work on the storyboards started with the client, and this sketch was done by the client and circulated with her team to ensure she'd not missed anything:

We then discussed it on a zoom call and amended as needed, going through the language and visuals to check it was communicating what was needed = complete sketch-carnage!

Afterwards I drew up the final images and they were circulated for a final check and any amends that were needed. This process started in the autumn, and the majority of the initial sketch work was done by the client, so I'm grateful for their input, as it's become a truly collaborative piece of work.

With thanks to Keymn and Rachel from National Voices, it's been a really enjoyable process.