Framescape

A local, non-profit digital community project, Framescape, aims to bring together digital creative companies within Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. It seeks to support, educate and inspire current and future generations of creative, digital and technical professionals.

Framescape is on a mission to change the narrative. London and Manchester are arguably the top UK cities that creatives flock to pursue their dream career. But, areas such as Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire offer bigger opportunities to gain experience and knowledge across a wide range of creative, digital and technical disciplines.

The Framescape team approached us to create three careers guides aimed at young creatives who might be considering careers in animation, marketing or gaming, as well as parents who need reassurance that it’s the right pathway for their child. The guides needed to be captivating to a creative audience, informative and digestible.

It was vital that the careers maps were injected with creativity to attract and engage the young audience. We created a universe of illustrative characters, all featuring unique characteristics that related to the specific subject area. Blended with cut-out imagery, the illustrative style aims to demystify the process of pursing a creative career in the local area.

The guides needed to be accessible, educational and inspirational for any young creative in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. So, instead of overwhelming the design with big blocks of text, we let the design breathe and take a natural flow which is easily digestible for the audience. We carefully considered the hierarchy of information, highlighting key messaging from the main content and using QR codes with links to key pages so as not to overwhelm the audience.

To create accurate, relevant and trustworthy content, we delved into the subjects of the three key areas. We gathered insight from not-for-profit organisation Creative UK, the Independent Game Developers’ Association (TIGA), Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the BBC and more as well as local university courses such as University of Staffordshire and Keele University.

This informed the factual elements of content within the careers maps, which was supported by inspiring and creative copywriting to captivate the minds of the young audience. The content took a narrative form, guiding the user through the journey of finding their dream career. With easily accessible sections, the leaflet is designed to be used at any stage of the career journey.

Following this collaboration, we linked with Staffordshire University to create a guide to careers in esports aimed at prospective students. Following the same process, while deploying the University’s brand guidelines, we researched the niche subject area to produce a fourth engaging career map.