Using collaging to shape our Black History Month campaigns

Our in-house Creative team was briefed to create a distinctive look and feel for the Black History Month campaign 2024, this time responding to the theme ‘Reclaiming narratives.’

The campaign design aims to deepen the understanding of Black history and culture, celebrate, represent and empower our community, as well as signposting our audiences to the Black Creatives Hub, an online space showcasing work by our Black community and highlighting support, resources and opportunities available.

The design process

Refreshing the visuals for 2025

To update the campaign to align with the 2025 theme, 'Standing firm in power and pride,' we hosted another collage workshop with a new prompt to match. This year we worked with Renee Stewart, Sean Denedere and Ali Nasreldin to create 4 new collages, each aiming to emphasise the global Black community’s resilience, strength and dedication to progress.

The Creative team also iterated how we use text within the assets. Once the collages were complete we printed asset copy, cutting around it in abstract shapes, overlaid it on the collages organically and finally scanned each asset to achieve the final visuals. This approach enhances the layered stories and experiences represented in the collages.

Creating the 2024 campaign visuals

We collaborated with 3 collage artists, Ama Ogwo, Asili Taylor, and Hannah Smith. They got started based on a prompt which asked the group to draw from their own experiences, stories and history to respond to ‘Reclaiming narratives’ through the medium of collage. The aim was to create visual representations of untold success stories that demonstrate the complexity of the Black experience, transforming narratives that have overlooked these contributions and illustrate new ways of interpreting history.

The materials used in the workshop to create the collages were sourced from the Re-Use units on site and the artists’ own supply. All the workshop attendees, artists and colleagues alike, contributed to a collaborative playlist which played all day to keep us motivated and inspired. As we drew the workshop to a close, Ama, Asili and Hannah each created individual collages responding to the brief, as well as working together to create a collective group collage.

Campaign in numbers

Meet the design team