Okay, forgive the cheesy headline but some of us are copywriters who spend much of our time writing serious stuff about our clients’ products, services, achievements and aspirations. But this is a bit different and shows that Swordfish is also big on creative design for publicity materials. A recent marketing project for Melton Borough Council has come to an illuminating conclusion: creative promotional and directional banners for the town’s lampposts.
The brief
To produce eye-catching artwork for a series of six banners to showcase the town centre, and another four to promote Melton Mowbray’s Stockyard. The Stockyard is a couple of hundred metres north of the town centre and houses appealing artisan shops, food and drink outlets (including the renowned Round Corner brewery) as well as markets at least four days per week.
As we created the first hard copy Melton District Tourism Map in August 2022 (and two full updates since), we wanted to extend that look and feel with hand-created imagery for the town centre banners.
With our knowledge of the town – from designing and building the discovermelton.com website among other things – we chose six subjects that highlight what you can enjoy in Melton:
- Shopping
- Parks & Waterways
- Events
- Food & Drink
- Markets
- History
Then we created line and wash illustrations to represent these attractions. And oh yes, we used the colour palette from the Melton branding toolkit, so I hope you agree that the town centre banners look bright and vibrant.
How to get to the Stockyard
Next up, lamppost banners to highlight the location of the Stockyard. Signposting the Stockyard from the town centre in this way is a great idea. From the top of the pedestrianised section of the high street, you can look up the Scalford Road and just about see it. But our job was to make it very clear. So we saw this as a great opportunity to create some effective directional banners to point the way, lest anyone be unsure.
With all banners double-sided, it gave us the perfect opportunity to put a direction arrow from the Stockyard towards the Town Centre (heading south) on one side, and the converse on the other side (heading north). We picked up the arrow style from the Stockyard branding toolkit. That arrow represents the ‘shed’ shape of the former agricultural units that now house the Stockyard’s businesses.
If you need inspiring, creative banners for lampposts (or poster spaces) in your city, town or village, you know where to come. Just get in touch.
