The Project

The main objective of this campaign was to recruit a wider more diverse range of officers into Essex Police. Increasing the number of BAME and female officers to match the makeup of the population of Essex. There were also a few challenges thrown in as the concept had to be signed off and used by another force which meant doubling up on the photography. Plus this was created in the middle of the Covid19 pandemic which made it harder logistically for photoshoots in order to keep everyone safe.

The brief was to show that Essex Police valued difference and the people that work for the force. The posts were based around the 9 protected characteristics outlined within the Equality and Diversity act. By showing a diverse range of people we aimed for our audience to be able to recognise themselves and others like them with the same backgrounds, gender, age and so on within a Police uniform.

The Design

The design was vibrant and fun to catch people’s attention. It also strayed from the corporate police-style to show a different way of thinking to the public. The idea was to show diversity not only through the imagery of people but to match this with different backgrounds. Early on I found having too much detail within the backgrounds overcrowded the balance of the design. Keeping it simple with vibrant colours and patterns worked much better. Highlighting some images with more specific backgrounds such as using an abstract fluid paint pattern to represent fluid gender worked really well. The objective was to not be too obvious either so the audience made what they wanted of it. For example, it was suggested to use symbols to represent every religion as a background. For a start, this looked messy but you also run the risk of missing or upsetting a certain audience.

The layout was a simple grid style that gave a very clean and modern look. It was also adapatable for all sorts of formats for responsive websites, roller banners, bus banners and so on. This made art working a lot quicker further down the line.

The design was also duplicated and badged up for Hampshire Police. The design was always made to swap images out and easily adapt for other designers once I had designed the initial designs.

The Result

The results of this campaign were fantastic for both Forces. So much that other Forces are asking to come on board for the next project. We also held an online seminar in which a large amount of UK police forces attended and the feedback was great. The number of applications doubled from some of the audiences we were aiming at as well as increasing the number of overall applications.