Our Future Glen Eira City Council
Project Description
Our Priorities, Our Future — Community Engagement Campaign
Our Priorities, Our Future was a strategic community engagement campaign developed in partnership with Glen Eira City Council. The project focused on communicating complex financial and service planning challenges in a way that was clear, accessible and grounded in community participation.
This work sits at the intersection of government communication, community engagement strategy and campaign design — helping translate policy and long-term planning into meaningful public dialogue.
Services Provided
— Strategic communications framework
— Campaign identity system
— Visual language & design system
— Illustration system
— Multi-channel communications
Project Links
The Opportunity
Glen Eira City Council needed to engage its community in an open and transparent conversation about the future of Council services, financial sustainability and long-term priorities.
The campaign supported the Community Priorities Panel and broader engagement process — providing a public-facing platform to explain complex and often sensitive subject matter, including rising costs, constrained funding and infrastructure pressures.
The challenge was not just to inform, but to create space for participation — ensuring a diverse community could engage with the information and feel confident contributing to future decision-making.
Communicating Complexity with Clarity
The project required the translation of nuanced financial and policy information into communication that felt clear, respectful and accessible.
We were working within a politically sensitive environment, where tone, transparency and trust were critical. The campaign needed to resonate across a broad demographic — from young families to older residents and local businesses — without oversimplifying the issues.
Our approach focused on information clarity and audience understanding — ensuring that complex ideas could be engaged with, rather than avoided.
Campaign Strategy & Design System
We developed a strategic campaign identity that balanced clarity with warmth.
The visual language was designed to signal openness and inclusion, while still carrying the weight of long-term civic responsibility. This resulted in a bold, adaptable campaign system that could operate consistently across print, digital, outdoor and in-person engagement environments.
Messaging and design worked together — ensuring that communication was not only visually engaging, but also structured in a way that supported understanding and participation.
Illustration & Human-Centred Communication
Illustration played a central role in the campaign.
Rather than relying on traditional corporate or policy-driven visuals, we introduced a custom illustration system to soften complex information and humanise the conversation. This helped create a more approachable and inclusive tone — encouraging people to engage rather than disengage.
The visual system was designed to support dialogue, not dictate outcomes. It created space for residents to reflect on trade-offs, understand the context, and feel invited into the process.
This approach is a key example of how design can support civic engagement by making information more accessible and human.
Delivery Across Channels
The campaign was rolled out across a wide range of touchpoints, including print, digital, outdoor and community-facing materials.
Consistency was critical. The design system ensured that messaging remained clear and recognisable across all formats, while allowing flexibility for different types of communication and engagement moments.
We worked within strict brand governance requirements and tight timeframes — aligning with Council’s broader identity while establishing a distinct and ownable campaign platform.
The Outcome
The result was a campaign that supported a more open, inclusive and informed community conversation.
By combining strategic thinking with thoughtful design, the project transformed complex policy and financial information into something people could engage with — not just read.
More broadly, this work demonstrates how community engagement campaigns can move beyond one-way communication and become participatory systems — building trust, supporting transparency and enabling long-term civic involvement.
