The Woodland Trust
Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood
New visitor interpretation assets; new visual identity and roll-out
Having proved our credentials on previous projects, we were trusted with an open brief to overhaul all of the visitor information at Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood, one of the Woodland Trust’s flagship sites, located in The National Forest. This included developing and designing new signage and maps as well as large-scale visitor interpretation panels for the Welcome Barn. These now enhance the visitor experience, by introducing them to the local landscape, biodiversity, geology, flora and fauna as well as the history of the site.
What we did
Project management, staff and volunteer interviews, storyboarding, copywriting, illustration, design
When we took on this brief, the existing materials were old fashioned, disjointed, and failed to tell a story. And we quickly identified that some of the most important highlights were ‘missing’ because they only existed in the heads of staff members and volunteers. We therefore started by interviewing these people to learn all they knew about the site and crucially, what mattered most to visitors – from local dog walkers to nature enthusiasts and families on weekend outings.
Bringing the story to life
Once we had the necessary information, we created a storyboard capturing all key facets of the story, including the habitat, wildlife, history, and geography of the site, as part of one clear narrative. We developed an illustration style to visually unify all of this content, using the graphic device of tree rings to give a sense of the land use changing over time. We then designed a number of assets, from a visitor leaflet to the new four-metre-wide visitor interpretation panels, which were brought together in the Welcome Barn in one impressive display. This also featured a map, seasonal wildlife highlights, and a membership ask.
Delivering on the detail
The whole project was completed incredibly swiftly, especially considering the breadth and depth of information to gather, process, and represent. In fact, we had just four months from brief to installation, as the site needed to be ready for a visit by HRH Anne, Princess Royal to coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. Fortunately, we delivered.
‘Thank you so much for all your hard work on this, and your patience and understanding… I’m excited to see it all come together and really pleased with the outcome. Please pass on my thanks for pulling it all together and making it a great experience for our visitors.’
Engagement Officer, Woodland Trust
