Mayor for the Day

In the autumn of 2017, as part of the London Children’s Festival, we collaborated with A New Direction (a London-wide organisation that links opportunities in culture, education and the creative industries so that all young people in London can take an active part in their city), the Mayor's Fund for London and BEOPEN. We recruited and supported practitioners from Visual Communication to work with school children from across the capital to communicate the ways in which they would improve the city if they were 'Mayor for the Day'.

 The London Children’s Festival asked children and young people aged 9 to 14 to consider Mayoral priorities such as Healthy Streets, Healthy Habits, Healthy Communities and Healthy Spaces. Over 250 children from eight schools took part in workshops to devise ways to make London a better place. Current student Alicja Biala and graduates Abbie Vickress and Idoia Acha were selected to work with the schools, helping groups of young people to experiment with ways to visualise their ideas for improving the city. The children were encouraged to explore how they connect to and interpret the themes, and to explore their ideas and vision relating to the future of London. They were then tasked with turning their ideas into advertising campaigns, with the help of RCA mentors advertising agency creatives.

 Working with the groups’ ideas, Abbie, Idoia and Alicja created large-scale poster designs, which were on display at City Hall and seen by thousands of Londoners on the pages of CityAM and on London Live. The resulting campaigns were showcased during a festival at City Hall. And the young people’s ideas will be fed into the development of a new London Children’s Charter.