Chelmsford city council
CApturing a whole city in one well-designed report
Client: Chelmsford City Council
Sector: Public Sector (Local Government)
Date: Winter 2024
Services: Copywriting, Design
The brief:
Chelmsford is a bright, beautiful city in the heart of Essex. With more Green and Purple Flag awards than you can shake a stick at, one of the most lively high streets in the region and fast trains to London, it’s a popular place to live.
The flipside of this is that it also has high housing prices and some of the same issues as other affluent city areas in the UK.
We were asked by the local council to write and design a ‘warts and all’ report providing a detailed snapshot of the district.
What we delivered:
This project was peak Entangled - telling the complete and full story of a place - so we were delighted to work on it! Although a sense of narrative was important, it was vital that the report was centred on facts and evidence.
Collating a huge amount of data and information from various sources from the council to the Office for National Statistics, we pulled together a lively, engaging report that covered:
the council’s own values, priorities and plans
how the district had changed in the last decade
its landscape and environment
its people, culture, health, and social issues
its economy and outlook for the future
key community projects
challenges and successes
how local partners worked together for the district
Chelmsford does have a certain feel, and this was reflected in both copy and design.
Though concise, the sheer volume of required content meant that the document came in at 82 pages of A4. Clever design with plenty of white space and visual elements, however, made it feel fun to read.
To illustrate the copy, we used real images of the local community, clear diagrams and charts, and friendly, bright, accessible graphics which echoed the council’s well-recognised logo. The overall feel of the document brings together the Chelmsford values of honesty, positivity, clarity, collaboration and creativity.
“Sam supported us on a project summarising everything that the council does, our ethos and our ambitions for the future, so no easy feat! Her knowledge and understanding of local government were so impressive and her ability to translate that into reader friendly language even more so.
She listened to what we wanted and did her own research to produce something that we are so pleased with and was able to pick up on things that we hadn’t even thought about ourselves.
Throughout the process she was sure to prioritise our key messages, and we had full confidence in her expertise so we felt we could allow her the freedom to take her own approach.”
