Introducing Our New Ethos and Values Banners
- 17th Jun 2024
- Author: Elliott Langley - Marketing Administra
Since 2020, we’ve been gradually embedding our Ethos and Values into every aspect of the National Space Centre. We’ve gone from colouring in our Space For Everyone mural with our staff, to shouting about our Values online, to issuing all of our staff with #SpaceForEveryone lanyards! But now it’s time to make what we stand for visible from the moment you arrive.
We know that a sense of arrival is a really important part of providing an amazing day out and making our visitors feel welcome. Our car park is the first point of contact that you'll have with our Centre, so we need to make sure it reflects our passion for space, learning and providing experiences that leave lasting memories.
Our Head of Marketing, Malika, was thinking about this a lot, when she came up with the idea of adorning our lampposts with a series of vibrant and colourful banners to greet you as you arrive.
“We wanted a way to communicate the charity’s Ethos and Values, our commitment to our teams and our visitors,” Malika says. “The colourful banners create a sense of arrival that shares these messages, as well as celebrating the great outdoor spaces we have (thanks to Kevin the gardener, and the Bees!) We know people have been on long journeys to get here, as well as families who have been planning their visits for a long time, so why no extend the vibrancy of the exhibition beyond the walls, and welcome people into a #SpaceForEveryone”.
Creating an amazing first impression
The first challenge was to come up with a design for the banners that would not only communicate our values, but also liven up the car park. Thankfully we have a rather amazing in-house Design team who leapt at the opportunity to make something impactful.
“All of the team played a part in putting them together”, our Lead Graphic Designer, Ingrid, told me. “The banners feature characters from and inspired by the Space for Everyone mural, to make it tie in to the overall Ethos and Values campaign. Michelle worked on the colours and layout, and then I put in a few final touches.”
Once we had the design finalised, it was time to do some research on the best materials for the banners. We needed something that would create the impact that we wanted, but we needed to make sure that whatever material we used would be compatible with our lampposts.
We worked closely with a local printer, Blue Print and Display, who we had teamed up with many times in the past and who had lots of experience working with banners and flags. With their help, we settled on thick PVC, as the colours would look especially bright and vibrant on this substance.
With the banners printed, it was just a case of waiting for a sunny day so that our Maintenance team could take our cherry picker outside and hang them up.
Rain, rain, go away…
A particularly rainy May and June made this something of a challenge! Our elevated work platform (more commonly known as a cherry picker) can take a small amount of rain, but a whole day of solid exposure to bad weather would not be healthy for such a complicated piece of equipment.
After a few false starts, the clouds eventually parted and Nikki and Colin from our Maintenance team took the cherry picker out into the car park. It took a couple of days spent moving the cherry picker from lamppost to lamppost and affixing the banners one at a time.
“It’s a good thing I’m not scared of heights,” said Nikki. “It stayed sunny throughout both days, so I managed to them all installed in one go. I think I even got a bit of a tan, which is a nice bonus!"
A colourful car park
Now when you drive up Exploration Drive and into our car park, you'll notice our colourful banners elegantly displayed on our lampposts. You’ll see our Ethos and Values communicated loudly and proudly, as well as key messages about our organisation and the different charitable objectives that you will be supporting with your ticket purchases.
Whether you are a first-time visitor or an Annual Pass holder coming back for a return visit, we hope these banners will get you inspired and excited about learning about space with us right from the moment you arrive.
The next time you come to visit us, take a moment to enjoy our Design team’s amazing characters and illustrations – they really do encapsulate what the National Space Centre is all about!
