Urban regeneration brochure

A simple, bold, engaging, and respectful design for an urban regeneration brochure conceived to build community trust in an ambitious initiative.

Background

Cambridge Road Estate (CRE) is Kingston’s largest urban regeneration programme. Following months of close collaboration with residents to help understand what really matters to them and what their priorities are, the project was shaped with a goal to deliver approximately 2,000 high-quality new homes over the next 10-15 years.

The regeneration project was subject to producing a Landlord Offer and securing a ‘yes’ vote via a CRE resident ballot, in line with the Mayor’s guidance for estate regeneration. Without a ‘yes’ vote, regeneration wouldn’t go ahead. Voting ‘yes’ would translate into more affordable housing, better community facilities and outdoor spaces, as well as creating a positive social and economic legacy for thousands of residents in the south west London borough for years to come.

Challenge

Entering an intensive period of resident engagement in the lead up to the ballot, our client needed our help creating the Landlord Offer document, an urban regeneration brochure that would provide residents with the information they require to make an informed decision about whether redevelopment is right for them.

The document would have to stand out against other council communications, and provide a compelling visual narrative clearly expressing the benefits of the new development. The brochure would need to provide information in a straight-forward, jargon-free and well-structured way, and take into consideration that the reading ability of residents is below average for the qualifying age group.

Another key requirement in the brief was that the brochure design should focus attention on a strong local identity and the involvement of residents in developing the new neighbourhood.

Solution

Our design is simple and bold, friendly, engaging, and respectful, with a well-coordinated structure to take residents through a simple overview of key information, and which signposts to more detailed explanations in extended sections of the document.

The design was developed around building trust in the initiative – the pages are brimming with information, it’s a reassuring message of clarity about the voting and regeneration process that focuses on how the close-knit community will stay the same; it says to residents “you’re not moving away from your neighbours”.

From the start, the urban regeneration brochure speaks directly to residents: the contents page is an easy read that clearly sets out the structure of the document and the Offer at a high level, enticing readers to turn the page to delve deeper.

The brochure maximises the use of plain English and simple descriptions. The brand voice is compassionate, fair and understanding to convey confidence in the proposal to residents.

Copy engages straight away thanks to language that is warm and friendly, inclusive and centred on people, making it immediately attractive to the audience. The use of colour, a relaxed illustration style, and uncomplicated ways of structuring content on the page also contribute to the appeal of the brochure, and the message it’s communicating.

The brochure is designed to help residents easily navigate between topics relevant to their interests, which could be money considerations, moving house, or maintaining a sense of community.

A mixture of artist impressions and photography helps illustrate aspects of the new development such as quality of the new homes and lifestyle benefits.

To make it more realistic, persuasive, and to appeal to the emotions, we decided to Photoshop people figures in, making it easier for residents to imagine themselves in their new homes, should the development of the new neighbourhood go ahead – what may initially seem like a lifeless render of a furnished room immediately becomes a home with a personality.

Utilising the existing brand, we introduced new colours to distinguish between the different tenancy options available and help navigate the content.

Triangles at the top of each page add a sense of action and progression, while a prominent Vote yes icon used throughout the document helps embed our client’s message in the minds of readers.

Page after page, the brochure is filled with photographs of real residents of the estate. The style is fresh and full of optimism.

With the aim of attracting attention against other materials posted through residents’ doors, we designed the brochure to a size just smaller than A4, and placed it in a clear bag to spark curiosity.

We chose light paper stock to discourage residents from discarding the brochure as a heavy piece of literature they wouldn’t have time to go through, which mixed with the use of recycled paper and staying away from glossy print finishes, makes the brochure and the initiative it promotes feel like something immediately personal and within reach.

As well as delivering a printed copy of the urban regeneration brochure to each household on the estate, we also created a new website for the project and a digital version of the brochure which could be easily downloaded.

The proposal was a success, with residents overwhelmingly backing plans for regeneration in the ballot.