THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION.Changing perceptions of council careers.
Skills used: photographic style direction, film and photography art direction support, graphic framework design, colour accessibility compliance, toolkit development, collaboration with internal teams
Project impact:
Pilot campaign across the North East led to full national roll-out
Adopted by councils across England and Wales to support recruitment
Challenged outdated views of working in local government
Provided councils with a usable national recruitment toolkit
Context
The LGA wanted to tackle a long-standing problem: recruitment into council roles had fallen behind demand. Public perceptions of local government work were often narrow, outdated or simply invisible, and councils needed a fresh, relatable way to show the breadth of jobs that keep communities running.
The initial phase of the campaign was piloted in the North East, focusing on real people, real roles and the impact they have every day. After the pilot’s success, the work was expanded into a full national roll-out.
My role
My involvement sat across both the pilot and the early foundation of the national campaign.
Visual direction and accessibility
Helped shape the photographic style, ensuring images felt human, warm and grounded in real working environments
Developed the graphic framework in collaboration with the team, refining shapes, layout and hierarchy
Worked on colour selection to ensure compliance with WCAG AA accessibility standards
Film and photography
Art directed one of the campaign films, guiding contributors through on-camera delivery and ensuring the tone matched the wider creative
Supported the stills direction to maintain consistency across all assets
Toolkit development
Helped build the practical toolkit supplied to councils for local recruitment use
Ensured templates were flexible, easy to apply and visually consistent with the core campaign
Across the project I collaborated with strategists, artworkers, photographers, videographers and council partners, contributing to a clear visual system that could travel from a single pilot area to national scale.
