Poppyscotland
Illustration Project
I had the pleasure of working with the charity Poppyscotland in 2024, to create a series of custom illustrations to be used in their educational materials distributed to schools.
Poppyscotland are an incredible charity, providing tailored support to members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and their families.
Getting to know the brand & the brief
Poppyscotland approached me with a request for illustrations portraying different job roles within the charity, which were to be used as part of their outreach work with school children. These drawings would help to give pupils a clearer understanding of the variety of jobs within the organisation, from fundraising to digital content creator, while aligning with their brand identity and messaging. The goal was to help pupils identify their own skills and qualities and match them with the roles within Poppyscotland.
I worked closely with a Poppyscotland representative to fully understand the project and was provided with their brand guidelines and a detailed brief for each of the illustrations, to ensure visual consistency and adherence to brand identity.
The Process
I created an organic shape to serve as a background layer for each drawing, to allow each scene to have a playful and brand colour backdrop. I limited the number of additional colours, to distinguish certain elements, while keeping the illustrations as on-brand as possible. The background shape would shift and adjust to work behind any of the initial black and white drawings, allowing only the key areas to have further colour applied. This helps focus the eye on the key parts of each scene.
Final Illustrations
Each illustration captures a staff member in action, whether they’re engaging with the community, fundraising, or interacting with supporters or service users. The settings were carefully crafted to reflect the real-world environments these roles operate in, helping school pupils to more fully understand the work behind-the-scenes at Poppyscotland.
These illustrations are now being used in schools as part of Poppyscotland’s educational materials, helping students to not only learn about the charity’s mission but also think critically about their own skills and how they can contribute to charitable work in future.
It was an inspiring project to be a part of, knowing that these illustrations will help young people better understand the importance of Poppyscotland, charitable work, and their own skills and abilities.
"I found Graeme after searching for a local illustrator to [create] materials for our annual learning pack…Graeme was a pleasure to work with, listening to our requirements and explaining his process clearly….Graeme was brilliant at listening to [our] vision and creating something fun and engaging…it was so exciting to open his emails and see how he had transformed [our] familiar spaces into illustrations. Graeme was responsive to any changes I requested and offered alternatives when I couldn't quite make up my mind. He was brilliant to work with from start to finish on this project and the illustrations are wonderful!"
- Maddy Weir, Learning Programme Officer, Poppyscotland.
Does your organisation need additional design, ideation, or illustration support?
Email me to discuss your project!