Action for Children
National Children's Hour

‘When the big hand reaches for the little hand.’

Neon created the brand identity and campaign design for Action for Children’s ‘National Children’s Hour’, an initiative highlighting the importance of parents spending at least one hour a day playing and connecting with their children. The campaign’s visual identity featured a clockface logo where the hands subtly resembled an adult and child, symbolising care and connection. The warm, woodcut typography and line — “When the big hand reaches for the little hand” — added an emotive, handmade charm.

Rolled out across print, digital, and TV, the campaign struck a heartfelt chord with families nationwide, successfully inspiring thousands to dedicate more time to meaningful play.

Full case study.

Leading UK charity Action for Children were to launch a new campaign aimed raising awareness of the huge value to children of having a least an hour a day of play and interaction with their parents or guardians.

They needed an identity to promote the campaign, and to really strike a chord with parents and guardians about the importance of this hour to children. Our approach was to create a typographic mark, incorporating a clockface that indicated the one hour a day – with the hands subtly suggesting a grown-up with a small child, peeking out from behind.

To add a further emotive element, we combined the mark with a warm and playful line, ‘When the big hand reaches for the little hand’ – underlining the importance of the connection between parent and child.

The wood print styling of the type subtly reflects the hands-on nature of children’s play activities, as well as making the mark feel less corporate. Action for Children loved the new mark, which has done a highly effective job of branding the campaign, across a wide range of communicaitons, including TV and social media.

We also created the National Children’s Hour campaign ‘activity book’, with each activity brought to life with beautiful illustrations made from objects and materials found around the home.

To find out more about this great campaign – as well as lots of activity ideas for your hour – visit Action for Children’s website, click here.

(Our other projects for Action for Children include: I’m An Activist for Action Children, It Starts with hello, An hour for Good, Swap n’ Shop to name but a few.)

 

Kind words…

“Action for Children appointed Neon to create a powerful creative idea and identity for National Children’s Hour. Neon delivered this in spades, presenting us with a campaign where early signs indicate that the public will be active and enthusiastic participants.

Working with Neon, you can expect strategic thinking combined with beautifully crafted creativity to bring a vision to life. As Head of Brand and Marketing, I not only appreciate the single-mindedness of their approach and attention to detail, but also the easy working relationship and genuine partnership they bring to the table.”

SHEONA MICHIE
Head of Brand and Marketing
Action for Children

To find out more: [email protected] or call +44 (0)20 3289 1733 Share this: Email, LinkedIn, Facebook, Download PDF, follow us on Instagram or view our animations and movies on Vimeo

 

CHARITY
Campaign

GRAPHIS INTERNATIONAL
Logo design 2018
– MERIT

PROJECT SUMMARY
Art direction
Brand guardian
Campaign strapline
Campaign brand mark
Advertising
Promotional posters
Literature
Bespoke illustration
Digital
Events

National Children's Hour campaign brand mark.

Action for Children National Children’s Hour 'When the big hand reaches for the little hand'. Action for Children the UK children's charity were to launch a new campaign about raising the awareness of the huge need and value to children (through extensive research) of having a least an hour a day play and interaction and activities with their parents or guardians. They needed an identity to help promote the campaign and ideally strike a chord with parents and guardians about the value and importance of this hour to children.The solution? The approach was to create a typographic mark, using the Action for Children red, that indicated the one hour a day with the clockface integrated within the O of the word hour - with the hands subtly inferring an adult with the big hand on the clock and a child peeking out from behind as the little hand on the clock.To add an emotive element to the mark it was married with a play on words with our line “When the big hand reaches for the little hand” to help makethe connection between parent and child. The typographic styling a wood print styling to help reflect the hands on nature of some of the children’s actives hand made printing etc. and to help it feel less corporate. The new mark has helped strongly brand the campaign, in promotional pledge posters,literature for activities for parents and children to try at home, regional after school kids hour events and TV and social media. Idea, art direction and design by Neon Design & Branding Consultancy www.neon-creative.com

National Children's Hour 'When the big Hand reaches for the little hand' animation.

National Children's Hour campaign activity book.

Action for Children, National Children’s Hour 'When the big hand reaches for the little hand'. The ‘Top Ten Activities Book’ had all manner of simple and fun activities to do at home, using simple house hold objects or ingredients. The charming 3D montage illustrations within the book were themselves made from found objects and materials – the only final additional ingredients to be added to the mix were time and a little imagination! The activities are also avaiable as downloads on the Action for Children’s website. Idea, art direction and design by Neon Design & Branding Consultancy www.neon-creative.com
Action for Children, National Children’s Hour 'When the big hand reaches for the little hand'. The ‘Top Ten Activities Book’ (sample spreads shown here) had all manner of simple and fun activities to do at home, using simple house hold objects or ingredients. The charming 3D montage illustrations within the book were themselves made from found objects and materials – the only final additional ingredients to be added to the mix were time and a little imagination! The activities are also avaiable as downloads on the Action for Children’s website. Idea, art direction and design by Neon Design & Branding Consultancy www.neon-creative.com

National Children's Hour campaign and activity book promoted on Sky News.

National Children's Hour campaign activity kit.

To help launch National Children’s Hour, Action for Children ran events throughout the country inviting parents along through mums and family groups/networks. At the events each child received a little ‘Activity Kit Bag’ which contained acute iconic little red apron, as well as an Action for Children’s ‘Top Ten Activities Book’ – designed especially for the campaign launch.The ‘Top Ten Activities Book’ had all manner of simple and fun activities to do at home, using simple house hold objects or ingredients. The charming 3D montage illustrations within the book were themselves made from found objects and materials – the only final additional ingredients to be added to the mix were time and a little imagination! Action for Children National Children’s Hour 'When the big hand reaches for the little hand'. Idea, art direction and design by Neon Design & Branding Consultancy www.neon-creative.com

National Children's Hour Facebook pages.

Action for Children National Childrens Hour website on a mobile detail featuring illustrations, National Childrens Hour brand mark by Neon Design & Branding Consultancy www.neon-creative.com

National Children's Hour website pages.

Brand campaign by Neon - designed by Dana Robertson - Charity sector branding - Action for children - National Children’s Hour campaign - website detail featuring child with an apron with National Children’s Hour logo on it

National Children's Hour campaign activity book illustration details.

National Children's Hour campaign pledge poster and event reportage.

National Children's Hour campaign brand mark.

Action for Children National Children’s Hour 'When the big hand reaches for the little hand' full campaign brand mark. Action for Children the UK children's charity were to launch a new campaign about raising the awareness of the huge need and value to children (through extensive research) of having a least an hour a day play and interaction and activities with their parents or guardians. They needed an identity to help promote the campaign and ideally strike a chord with parents and guardians about the value and importance of this hour to children.The solution? The approach was to create a typographic mark, using the Action for Children red, that indicated the one hour a day with the clockface integrated within the O of the word hour - with the hands subtly inferring an adult with the big hand on the clock and a child peeking out from behind as the little hand on the clock.To add an emotive element to the mark it was married with a play on words with our line “When the big hand reaches for the little hand” to help makethe connection between parent and child. The typographic styling a wood print styling to help reflect the hands on nature of some of the children’s actives hand made printing etc. and to help it feel less corporate. The new mark has helped strongly brand the campaign, in promotional pledge posters,literature for activities for parents and children to try at home, regional after school kids hour events and TV and social media. Idea, art direction and design by Neon Design & Branding Consultancy www.neon-creative.com

Other projects you may find of interest...

Thames & Hudson
60th Anniversary

Nabarro LLP
Don't just warm a chair.
Find the perfect seat.

Nabarro LLP
Your future as a lawyer.
Leave nothing to chance.