Green Space Dark Skies

Working with long-term collaborators Walk The Plank we helped develop the pitch for “Unboxed: Creativity in the UK” a call to “Platform emerging talent and under-represented voices” by the UK Government. Upon the successful bid we embarked on a project which would last over three years in total from delivert, completion and evaluation.

Green Space Dark Skies invited 20,000 people, from all paths in life, to make a journey into the landscape together. There they experienced wild and beautiful places across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as dusk falls.

Open to all, each mass gathering celebrates nature, our responsibility to protect it and everyone’s right to explore the countryside. Led by outdoor art pioneers Walk the Plank, in total Instruct we’re the lead brand agency producing all branding, marketing, printed and digital collateral for the project.

With the project encompassing many partners and spread across the entire of the UK we needed a unique typeface that could reflect the tech-nature of the project. Using a customised version of Pangram Pangram’s Fraktion Sans enabled us have a distinctive but ownable typeface across all materials.

The overall concept contained cutting edge technology supplied by Siemens to aid GPS powered lights held by participants across large rural areas to creatre incredible living artworks.
With the technology still in development during the early stages of the project there was no photography to help illustrate the concept. We used collage image making to evoke a sense of brand early on, mixing the city and nature and light connecting people to create a open, welcolming and inclusive message.

A big part of the project was inclusion, to attract people to nature who may not experience it. As part of that we created the ‘Luminators’ a set of avatars to show our diversity but also speak to many different audiences.

We created many calls to actions, explainer animations and bespoke piece of print in different languages which we’re distributed all across the UK.

Once the events began, we worked on operational items for all aspects of the events, from social media assets sharing the experience further to wayfinding assets, lanyards, space dressing and branded uniforms.

After the events, we continued to support Walk the Plank with evaluations, award submissions and reports of which were consitent with the brand and told the whole story of the project.

As well as setting new standards, the legacy of Green Space Dark Skies sits within the new partnerships established between creative practitioners, National Parks and AONBs; with the viewers of the films, who might decide to visit those places and adopt a ‘leave no trace’ approach; and with all the participants, who might cherish dark skies a bit more after experiencing them for real.

Awards

National Outdoor Events Association 2022
Award: Best Sustainability Award 2022

Web Excellence Award for Accessibility
Award: Gold

Access All Areas Awards 2022 Diversity and Inclusion Award: Nominee

Digital Culture Awards 2023
Digital Content and Digital Inclusion Awards: Nominee