The Wild Escape

Bringing The Wild Escape to life for Art Fund

Nature surrounds us in rural and urban settings, but so many of us are disconnected from the beauty and wonder of the wild world we inhabit. Field teamed up with Art Fund to bring The Wild Escape to life—an ambitious, cross-sector initiative aimed at connecting children to nature, museums, and art while igniting creativity and paving the way for a nature-positive future.

Field were commissioned to create a captivating brand identity, toolkit and microsite that would deliver engaging visual experiences to audiences of The Wild Escape.

The programme, designed to inspire 7–11-year-olds, particularly those in low arts engagement areas, involved exploring local museums or online collections to discover creatures that sparked their imagination. Through compelling and accessible resources, the children learned about these creatures and then crafted journeys back to a natural habitat, all represented in an expansive digital landscape – ‘The Wild World’.

World building and collective creativity

The programme’s key themes of sustainability, biodiversity, inclusivity, creativity and connectedness informed a vibrant brand identity that would inspire, engage and deliver a digital expression of the natural environment.

‘World building’ was a central theme, symbolising each child’s ability to contribute their unique creature to The Wild Escape. This collective creativity fostered a UK-wide collaborative spirit, while acknowledging the many diverse natural elements required to sustain habitats and landscapes. Our visual elements, digital renditions of natural forms, ranged from bird wings to tiny leaves found in urban pavements, celebrating the inclusivity and accessibility of nature across different environments.

A glitchy edged aesthetic with bold shapes and a vibrant colour palette – unconventional for nature themes – spoke to the tech-savvy pre-teen audience.

The brief created a great creative problem; how do you channel a vibrant and edgy digital world into something organic and natural? We achieved this through an extensive colour palette, a cut and paste cropping system for our animal graphics, and playful typography to be further sympathetic to the core target market. I’m really pleased with how the team delivered the Wild Escape brand.

Angus MacKenzie, Head of Design, Field

Working with Field has been nothing short of an absolute pleasure. Briefing in the identity for a commission that demanded a level of fluidity that would allow for the work of both children and established Artists alike, to sit within one harmonious ‘eco-system’, is no mean feat. And that’s exactly what Field gave us - a flexible brand package that allowed ‘The Wild Escape - to meld beautifully into the ‘The Wild World’ seamlessly, holding all the many different touch points in the process.
As the project progressed, Field were consistently flexible in meeting our need to develop the identity / platform against the shifting audience needs, always coming back to us with creative that hit the mark. And they did all of this while maintaining a level of lightness and excitement for the project that was always appreciated.
They’re a super talented bunch of genuinely lovely people, if you’ve not done so already then, I wholly recommend giving them a shout.

Natalie Cahillane, Head of Creative, Art Fund.

Credits and partners

Piccadilly Lights display: Video content created by Landsec in collaboration with Art Fund as part of the promotional campaign for The Wild Escape’s Earth Day Activations. Images Captured by Sam Lane. The video ran for 10 minutes on Piccadilly Lights at 7pm on the eve of Earth Day, the 21st of April. Many thanks to Landsec for their generous display of the digital artwork in such a central prominent public domain.

‘Out Of Home’ promotional campaign created by Art Fund to celebrate the Earth Day Activation on April 22nd 2023, and running for one week. With many thanks to Rapport & Initiative, Ocean Outdoor, Alight, Clear Channel, JC Decaux, Limited Space and Global for their generous display of the digital artwork across outdoor advertising space for the public to enjoy.

Wild Escape Interactive Platform: By PRELOADED

External Links
https://www.artfund.org/explore/the-wild-escape