Southwark Council

Brief
Southwark, a dynamic and fast-changing multicultural community, required print media to support its action in demonstrating how faith, belief and culture impact on daily life, and in recognising how major faith systems work so that the complex work, social and spiritual lives of Southwark’s citizens can be recognised by other community members.

Creating a sensitive and clear booklet to support Southwark’s ambition to become culturally aware, and supportive of its communities, both of faith and no faith, required more than simple print skills and graphic design. It demanded a degree of cultural acumen based on a background in faith and interfaith communication and a deep understanding of faith values.

Agency
Damask Media has a developed track record in translating values across communities, whether across brands, faiths, cultures or principles of business. By drawing down this established expertise and bringing it to bear on the sensitive issue of multi-faith communities, the Damask team were perfectly placed to interpret faith and cultural values between communities and across boundaries. The visual underpinning of this initiative was crucial to creating the right ambience of understanding and acceptance whilst a clear narrative and commitment to respecting the values of each community was essential to achieving the aim of informing, educating and integrating community and faith awareness.

Outcome
A Mark of Faith is an apparently simple but highly developed information booklet. After conducting depth research, Damask Media collated material to give an informed and well balanced range of content covering the major faith and spiritual groupings currently resident in Southwark.
Marrying content and design worked well to give faith communities a feeling of ownership of the booklet whilst giving other stakeholders a sense of the flavour and complexion of faith groups with which they may have been largely unfamiliar.
Calling upon established design elements to give coherence and familiarity to the project, but using fresh imagery and a strong emblem to unite the various elements of community, faith and integration, Damask Media delivered a strong and attractive print publication that recognises and celebrates the communities from which its material was drawn.