ABOUT

The Brief –
The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is a formal partnership of four councils across South Yorkshire. Active travel is a key element of the Mayor’s vision, aiming to establish South Yorkshire as the UK's healthiest place to live. The initiative also contributes to the Better Places and Fairer Places programmes, and is integral to the region’s Net Zero and sustainability goals.

SYMCA tasked us with creating a fun and dynamic brand for their Year of Active Travel (YOAT), a yearlong initiative centred around walking, wheeling and cycling.

Concept –
SYMCA wanted a brand that got people energised, excited and out and about. It also needed to be inclusive, particularly in terms of ability to ensure people didn’t feel discouraged or left out.

In terms of audience, it needed to appeal to residents in each of the four regions and further audiences such as legislative bodies, community groups and local authorities.

Execution –
We conducted research into other active travel initiatives and sporting events to create initial concepts and conducted refinement rounds with the SYMCA team to arrive at the final design. It embodies the essence and values of the campaign with a logo that features a genderless and abstracted figure in motion that represents active travel for all (for example, the right leg has been designed in a way where it could also be a wheel to include wheeling) It also makes use of vibrant colours that link back to the overall SYMCA brand and the graphic devices for the campaign embody movement, energy, and the cyclical nature of active travel.

During our partnership with SYMCA, we created a multitude of assets including the identity and logo mark, guidelines as well as social media and PowerPoint templates so that the team could create their own designs.

We specialised in creating digital and print collateral for events during the year such as The Mayor’s Walk and Wheel Challenge featuring a range of bespoke illustrations, South Yorkshire by Bike and SouthYorksWalks. These ranged from activity packs and interactive maps to t-shirts and event banners.

Additionally, photography was commissioned using a local photographer to capture young residents engaging in active travel and encapsulate the essence of the campaign.

The design of and assets for multiple web pages was also produced such as their active travel pages and YOAT pages ranging from the events calendar to individual event pages.

Lastly, we also worked on communications including shaping the YOAT and active travel narratives and copy for their web pages.

Results –
The SYMCA team were impressed with our creativity and efficiency, he brand was well received by wider audiences, including local authorities, educators and local groups. The brand is still in active use across SYMCA channels with many of the assets designed to be reused for yearly events.

They also recorded an increased presence on their social media, website and taking part in events - for example 78 schools signed up to the Walk and Wheel Challenge, a record number.