Putting play centre stage for National Trust

The Opportunity

The National Trust wanted to add some fun and freedom to the experience of children (and their carers) visiting their properties across the summer holidays, as well as give them lasting memories to cherish. They had a programme of play and designated areas in mind, along with sponsorship from Starling Bank, but needed to bring them to life creatively, sustainably and sensitively.

Our Approach

We developed an overall creative vision that integrated at both a brand and site level. We plotted the key stages of the visitor journey and through creative wayfinding, we ensured that visiting children were excited by Summer of Play and expertly led to the play installation.

We ensured that our creative concept came to life via very practical, sustainable and durable features, that would not only last for 6-8 weeks outside, but also be suitable to be dismantled and stored for use again in future years.

We also choreographed a busy installation programme across 17 different properties across the UK.

The Creative Solution

We used bright, colourful typography at the heart of our creative concept – featuring the word PLAY at the centre. This served to attract children to the features as well as communicate very clearly what they were signposting. We also developed a charming range of nature and play-related elements to decorate the welcome ‘totem’, the wayfinding signs and the main feature. We needed to evolve the existing programme identity as some of the assets from previous years were still in use, but inject it with a new energy and appeal. We also balanced the commercial considerations of the Starling Bank sponsorship with the desire to create items that were fun and appealing to children.

We used recycled wooden pallets at the core of the installations to complement the outdoor and rural settings and designed them to be climb and tamper-proof.