Kirklees Council Safeguarding

Safeguarding. Let’s make Kirklees a safer place…

Why was it needed?

Safeguarding is a difficult subject to talk about. It’s important that people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures understand and can recognise signs of abuse – and more importantly feel they can do something to help. We were approached by our client Kirklees Council, to educate their internal teams and encourage the reporting of safeguarding issues.

What we did

We were asked to create an animation that would help highlight forms of abuse to look out for and how to report them. The target audience are council workers that aren’t part of the specialised safeguarding team, but may come across issues whilst at work with the public. Since its initial brief, the animation is now used across many internal and external council communications.

Character design

One of the challenges of this brief was to design a form of ‘person’ or ‘character’ that was inclusive and clear. It couldn’t reflect any kind of gender, age or race. We went with an abstract approach of using flat, organic, hand-drawn shapes with only eyes for expression.

The characters were displayed in different abusive situations alongside extra drawings to aid the message. The organic shapes were also used for title pages and speech bubbles – keeping the theme throughout.

Trust your instincts

Throughout the animation, the Kirklees Council logo is displayed, however, we wanted to establish more of a brand for their Safeguarding collateral.

We developed a Trust Your Instincts logo, with the U highlighted. It re-enforced the message to the viewer that they can help prevent abuse by reporting issues.

Animation & typography

When it came to animating, the style had to remain sensitive and concise and without too much ‘drama’. We kept transitions calm and simple and text large and bold. The colour scheme was part of the Kirklees branding; a mix of teals and yellows, which worked well together on screen.

Keeping in brand through the font, typographical animation was included where possible, to represent feelings. It helped the flow of the video and prevented too much repetition of the character shapes.

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“If you broach the subject of Safeguarding, people’s first thoughts move to differing forms of abuse, Safeguarding is a complex issue. Our challenge was to engage a diverse audience with a strong, relevant yet accessible Safeguarding message. From our initial conversations through to completion, our project felt and worked like a partnership; a creative yet safe space to share thoughts, feedback and possibilities. Browndog delivered and exceeded our original brief. Fantastic work thank you, really enjoyed our journey.”

Gary Scargill, Safeguarding & Quality Assurance Partner, Kirklees Council

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Why was it needed?

What we did

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