Tree Trumps - social media engagement
I've been working with
Heart of England Forest on marketing projects for over a year now and their appetite for illustrative assets in their campaigns is, much like the forest they're striving to plant, growing rapidly.
As part of a social media engagement exercise the Client requested I design a dozen
Top Trumps style playing cards themed around species of native English tree found in the forest. In the early stages of developing the card designs I introduced an illustrative component; a circle overlaying the tree photography depicting its corresponding leaf/seed to aid with species identification. The rest of the card design took its influence from the brand kit I'd been using when designing and building the Client's
various email marketing communications.
The cards have so far been deployed in weekly posts across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but I also designed them to the specifications of physical playing cards should the Client choose to reproduce them as a playable set.
Woodland Adventure Guide
The Client operates a subscription model that rewards its users with perks and memorabilia. For instance, in the spring time a campaign was launched to encourage younger users and their parents to sign up to the programme and receive a Woodland Adventure Guide in the post. The guide functioned as an activity book to be utilised on a visit to the forest, filled with trivia, games and exercises to be completed amongst the woodland surroundings.
Given that children were the target audience of this document the Client commissioned me to generate illustrative assets to compliment the content within. This included features such as wildlife spotting and seed/tree pairing activities, decorative illustration of animals and a variety of identifiable trees. The artwork I produced was stylistically aligned with concept illustration the Client had once produced; cartoon-like and naïvely constructed, presented in an earthy palette.
Digital Christmas illustrations
Most recently the Client commissioned me to produce a couple of illustrations for their Christmas gifting marketing activity. In particular I was requested to draw a Santa Claus sporting uncharacteristically green attire as he delivered the gift of tree saplings ready to be planted on behalf of those beneficiaries making donations to the tree-planting charity. Additionally I was asked to illustrate a simple Christmas wreath constructed from twigs and adorned with a few natural winter hallmarks as part of a DIY content piece on festive decoration.
Both creative assets have appeared in the Client's email newsletter communications.
Map design
Maps are key elements in most of the Client's brochures and packs as they help visitors navigate the defined walking routes of the forest. The routes are designed to move visitors through a range of natural features on the land including rivers, fields and woodland and crucial amenities such as the car park starting points, neighbouring properties and landmarks all aid visitors in arriving at the forest to begin with.
Map drawing projects commissioned by the Client have enabled me to develop a house style which I've translated into multiple graphics for use across many print and marketing materials, notably the Woodland Walks guide books.
T-shirt challenge