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Visible Virals – #wearecreative

It’s been a month or so since we finished this amazing piece of work and I’ve had time to think over all that we experienced during that time… go get a cuppa… it’s a long one!

What’s it all about?
We had the absolute honour to work on the Visible Virals project with Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council and Public Health Liverpool, between September 21 and March 22, to find a way to bring to life their annual report for 2019/20. This was a time that most of us will never forget as it was the time during the first lockdown and the beginning of the pandemic and the annual report reflected what happened during that time.

The brief was simple – use high quality, engaging cultural activity to animate Liverpool’s residents experience of COVID 19 so far, how it impacted our communities and how it may affect people’s resilience in the next phase of the pandemic response. This was to be done using digital and traditional media across the city, with specific emphasis in certain areas of the city known for being difficult to reach with public health messaging.

But wait… who did this?
Rach and I were the graphic team behind this project but to be able to meet the brief we worked how we love to work best – collaboratively, this time with two incredible companies Focal Studios and Defproc Engineering. Focal and Defproc are the team behind the incredible LUX event at last year’s Liverpool light night, which saw them project an immersive game on St Luke’s “the Bombed Out Church”, one of Liverpool’s most famous landmarks.

Focal are a progressive creative business specialising in projection mapping, video production, immersive media and animation. Their ethos is very similar to our own in that they relish collaborative projects with different creative folk, leading to different experiences and connections each time. Dennis and Jess are a powerhouse team full of energy and enthusiasm so creative sessions were quick fire and fun.

Defproc Engineering are a unique technical creative company specialising in physical and technical engineering solutions – which could mean anything from physical prototypes of designs for manufacture to physical controls for games or technical specifics and bespoke software for their ground breaking Push to Talk project. Jen, Patrick and their fantastic team have a wealth of knowledge and ideas that made creative sessions have an extra level and produced an amazingly fun experience for people at the pier head.

I personally can’t wait to work with them again and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.. please go and check them both out.

Visible Virals
We began by reading The Public Health Annual Report, 2020, a document that includes peoples’ lockdown stories of: kindness, compassion and resilience alongside equally great sorrow, fear, grief, isolation, mental health issues and loss. As a team we were asked to tell these stories in a city-wide, visually impactful and meaningful way. The important things for us, were to listen, reflect the mood of the city and tell peoples’ stories sensitively.

WeAre was developed with the people who attended our engagement events. We know it’s vital to speak to the people for projects like this, as by listening to their experiences and taking their honest feedback we were able to determine the project concept, visual concept, tone and messaging from their voices. Thank you to everyone who braved the plague, winds and rain to attend the creative and engagement  events at; the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre, L8, Liverpool Veterans HQ, L5, The Liverpool Lighthouse, L4 and The Florrie, L8. It was a huge privilege to hear your lockdown experiences, we are honoured and thank you for your generosity in being able to share them.

The concept of #weare was unanimously developed from 3 initial concepts shown to all of our attendees. People liked the simple message of togetherness coupled with the ability to finish off the statement to create their own lockdown messages. As one man remarked “It’s personal to you isn’t it? Your journey is going to be different to someone elses.”
Each person’s story is unique and yet there were common threads throughout the stories we heard, including: WeAre… resilient, generous, kind, isolated, grieving, compassionate, community, scousers, fearful. It was these words amongst others that make up the key messaging; we have only used words and messaging that have come from these people.

The DNA double helix; the project’s visual concept also came spontaniously from one of the engagement events. During one of our sessions we thanked the group for sharing their stories and for their generosity in supporting their neighbours and communities, for example; making food, shopping, waving through windows, volunteering for foodbanks or being a key worker. One person said ‘There’s no need to thank us, we’re scousers, it’s in our DNA’

From that event the double helix DNA concept was conceived and chosen as people’s favourite visual. The final visual has been abstracted and given contrasting colour treatments to develop an impactful creative that will translate across the diverse city-wide digital and print media. From banners, video clips of people’s stories, billboards, hoardings, animated projections and an interactive game projected onto the Museum of Liverpool, #weare aimed to reflect and pay tribute to the people and communities of Liverpool.

So what exactly did you do?
For such a complex social project we held several workshops in the areas where COVID most affected communities, to be able to create our concepts and the messaging. These people were also consulted on the look and style and what messages they wanted included.

Graphically we created many different outputs including:
Social media: Covers, stories and posters.

Print Media including: Large lamppost banners, Billboards, Super Rears, Floor Vinyls, Guerilla Posters, Park Banners, Game POD vinyls, Roller Banners, Event Postcard, Signage, Schools postcards, Vinyl graphics and Hoardings. These will be around the city this year (perhaps longer in some instances).

Digital Media including: D48 Billboard, E-invites, Posters for projections, Engagement event posters, Liverpool 1 Media Screens, Museum of Liverpool Screens and Street Hubs.

Alongside the printed and digital media were the amazing, animated projections created by Focal who popped up at various points around the city over a 2 week period guerrilla style, on places like Byrom Point, Everton FC, The Florrie, The Albert Dock and the ventilation shaft at St Georges Place.

The project culminated on the 23^rd March at the #wearegame event at the Museum of Liverpool where passers by and attendees were encouraged to play the game created by Defproc, in their custom made Pod as it was projected on the side of the museum! It was such a unique experience, and everyone who played it got pretty competitive!

#weare reflecting
Looking back on it I can’t believe how lucky we were to be able to be part of it and be able to go into the communities most affected by COVID and speak to people about their experiences. It’s such an honour to be able to share their voices and be able to help shape how the next part of this recovery happens. The best thing about this project is that it is already becoming a legacy project, tying into up and coming mental health and vulnerable people campaigns across the city so can be used long term to aid the on-going COVID support for our communities.

You can visit the project and hear some of the lockdown stories from local people at www.cultureliverpool.co.uk/wearescousers

Anything else?
I’d also like to drop in a huge thanks to the other people we worked with on this –

Urban workbench who made the Pod

Simon at EXP NorthWest who made the pod look AMAZING and in double quick time.

David and Tom at The Guide Liverpool who videoed and edited all the fantastic stories from participants.

Chris at Ididitforthemusic who created the music for the game.