Become part of it

The brief was to advertise National Trust membership. I wanted to do something bold and impactful, to challenge perceptions that the National Trust isn't just for older people or young families - it's for everyone.

I came up with the slogan 'become part of it' to encompass the idea that by joining the National Trust, you can become part of something bigger.

I immediately thought of body art as a tool to express the intrinsic connection between people and place.

I started to mock this up into quick mac visuals, using images from the National Trust stock library, and outlines of people to represent the idea of people being body painted into the background. I added a card into the person's hand, to indicate that membership was the key to this experience, and getting you closer to what you love.

I explored different backgrounds to express the range of places the National Trust look after, as well as adding in quotes to express people's individual connections to the charity.

I then started to work these up into more accomplished mac visuals, pasting them into advertising boards and sites, to get a sense of how they would appear in-situ.

I also mocked up digital adverts to show that this idea could stretch across channels. The National Trust create and print their own textile patterns, so I suggested using any patterns in the campaign to adorn retail items such as mugs or scarves (for example, if a close up of wallpaper was featured).

I suggested video content to further bring the idea to life. On social media I thought it would be fun to do an April Fools joke, showing visitors reacting to someone body painted against a background, perhaps not noticing them at first. I also thought that a time lapse of the process (for example, below) would make interesting web content and supporting articles could start telling the story of important objects in the room (for example the history and origin of a specific wallpaper).

Although this project won a pitch, it was never made by the National Trust, as changes in strategy and priorities significantly altered the brief.

It would have been fun though!