Communicating effectively is about delivering compelling messages that will ultimately get you more engagement – and sales.

That’s why I’m running workshops to help you identify what your messages are, and how to share them.

In these practical sessions we will work on developing a messaging strategy for success.

We will –

• Identify your key audiences
• Decide on what will motivate them to act
• Develop a ‘messaging house’
• Consider how to integrate this into a wider communication strategy

The workshop will draw techniques I have used with everyone from Tesco to Virgin, Nesta to National Trust, as well as small businesses and entrepreneurs.

The 90 minute session will take place via Zoom, naturally, and costs just £60.

If you’re interested, email me on fbaker@live.co.uk and we can chat further.

The highlight is the Mail Rail, a railway system that ran in tunnels underneath London, from Paddington to Liverpool Street, right from Dec 1927 until May 2003. Running for 22 hours a day and carrying 4 million letters per day, the train network was complex, efficient, and crucial to keeping many of the businesses and services in the capital running. Visitors to the museum get to take a twenty minute ride in the little green trains, heading down through the tunnels to see film projections and hear audio narration about what life was like when it was a thriving and functioning railway. We’re all familiar with Queen Elizabeth’s head on our stamps, and you can see the sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II used to produce the iconic image replicated more than 220 billion times on stamps, as well as a priceless sheet of Penny Blacks.

On display is a Bristol to London Mail Coach from the 1800s, a five-wheeled bicycle invented by the Victorians to cope with a huge increase in post, and a replica Travelling Post Office. You can watch the General Post Office documentary Night Mail, with words by W H Auden and music by Benjamin Britten, and hear sound clips of real Mail Rail engineers telling their stories.

Adrian Steel, Director of The Postal Museum, says that ‘The Postal Museum offers people the chance to gain an insight into some of the quirky social history behind an incredible British invention – the post, whilst Mail Rail affords people a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore a slice of subterranean London, previously hidden from public view.͞’

It’s a fascinating experience about something that is in many ways familiar to our lives, yet which we know very little about. Well worth a visit.

The exhibition begins with posters and advertising promoting the health giving benefits of cigarettes. The mode and means of communication is only as effective as the message and belief behind it, and once it was deemed that smoking was healthy. We then see the sleek and sexy Silk Cut ad campaigns from the 1980s, followed by children’s cartoons promoting an anti smoking message, and the transition to plain packaging.

Symbols we’ve come to recognise and that are ubiquitous in our landscape, such as the green cross of pharmacy’s or the Red Cross depicting impartiality and safety. It’s explained how the font and typography used in hospitals came to be selected – clear, neutral and plain – and the importance of good signage.

Inspiration is taken from good design elsewhere. Miffy creator Dick Bruna’s inimitable style is used for a book about haemophilia, whilst UNICEF’s Ebola symptom posters of 2014 are evocative of Ladybird. The 1980s campaign AIDS: Don’t Die of Ignorance is a stark reminder of the importance of clear messaging, whilst the value of storytelling is apparent through Rejane Dal Bello‘s identity for a children’s hospital in Arequipa, that uses bright colours and happy characters to help ease the worries of young patients.

‘Graphic Design in and of itself isn’t that interesting,’ says Rebecca Wright, Programme Director of Graphic Communication Design, ‘what is interesting is what it does in relation to the subject that it’s serving. It is a service industry for the public and it comes to life in that context.’

Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? The answer from this exhibition is a resounding yes.

Part of the nationwide Undivided platform, which seeks to help young people have their voices heard in a post referendum Europe. We were keen that the event wasn’t seen as either pro or anti Europe – just acknowledging that things are changing, and we have an opportunity to be involved in that. And a fun way to do so would be through art and creativity. Hosted at the Bauhaus Café, a venue and project run by Betsy, who really lives out her passions and belief in creating change through connection and creation, it was a day of celebration.

Those who attended really embraced the concept, speaking out to explore positive ways to improve their experience of Ashford and life. Everyone was encouraged to say and share what would make their town better, be that health, art, employment, environmental issues, accessibility, infrastructure, education – and all of these and more came up!

Chris Buckett from Kent Urban Sketchers sat down with a group to draw their ideal streets, an activity that showed just how important the idea of community space, green areas and lively streets are for people. Natasha Boardman-Steer, as self defined urban innovator, asked people where they wanted to explore in Europe and why, demonstrating a continued connection with the continent, helped people make badges to show what they are proud of about Ashford, and captured it all on video.

Postcards from the ideal Ashford of the future were a great way to imagine how the town could look, and cut up and black out poetry ideal ways to recycle words to make statements of positivity. Slogans on t-shirts have always been important for activism, and designer and bespoke dressmaker Caroline Bruce worked with us to upcycle old material and wear our message with pride, whilst also sparking conversations about sustainability and the environment.

The Boss(y) Girls Project ran a workshop on gender and relationships between men and women, which saw people of both sexes fired up about inequality, and Kent Refugee Action Network and Ashford BME Association were on hand to speak to attendees.

We were thrilled that MP Damian Green came along for a discussion about his role as MP for Ashford in all of this and what politicians can do for us. In an energetic conversation amongst young and old, right and left, those who grew up in Ashford and those who moved here, we discussed the importance of being part of your community, thinking critically about politics, taking part in discussions about issues facing you and your area, and being a doer and not just a complainer.

We hoped that people would leave feeling excited and empowered, regardless of political affiliation, creative confidence or experience, and that new friendships and partnerships would be formed as a result. More than 150 ideas were generated and sent to Undivided, who will now put those forward to Parliament. As the evening closed and faces left as bright as the canvases and crafts across the room, there was definitely a sense of hope that in this community change could happen – and people could make it.

https://www.facebook.com/AshUnCCC/videos/282235732191316/