Vibe and creatives elements

Creative actions can have incredible power and impact.

Action Identity / Narrative

Working closely with your Arts, Action & Messaging teams from the outset of action planning to decide on your Action Identity. If you don't have whole teams for these elements, its good for someone to take the lead on each one.

Who is the action aimed at and does it align with our demands?

Create a narrative and make it clear to the public through cohesive visuals and choreography such as banners, flyers, placards, mobile structures, music, drama or speeches. There's more guidance on design here.

Balance framing the action visuals with radical participation: space for rebels to bring their own creative expression.

Moodboard/look and feel

You might want to spend some time with planners thinking about how the action should look and feel. Less is more. Is it colourful, vibrant and fun? Is it dark and sinister? Is it sombre and quiet? What are people wearing? What are the focal points? How will you grab attention? Spending time on this will help bring a beautiful action together that’s visually stunning.

• Get inspiration from the Creative A La Carte
  
  

• Watch this masterclass in Art Activism: John Jordan on Youtube

Think about visual framing for photographs and footage. The life of an action spreads online like a ripple effect. The press will respond best to well designed actions with clear messaging and powerful imagery. There is more guidance for photographers here.

Make sure your action promotes XR’s core demands and visual identity rather than your own artistry or brand. Balance your own creativity with service to the movement. Aim for sustainable, recycled materials to embody the change we need to see.

Art assets

Once you have agreed the action messaging you can think about what art assets you need and how you will source them. Will you make them, buy them, get participants to make them, ask the Arts Factory to make them? There's a load of guidance on making art assets here.

What are the banner messages? How many banners do you need? What sizes and for what purpose? Do they need to be hung up (so will need eyelets)? Do they need to be lightweight? Consider the weather and how it will affect your materials and staging. Eg. vinyl banners and waterproof placards hold strong in the rain and have a longer life, but are more easily caught by the wind.

If you are planning a march, you may need to work out the route to know how many banners are needed. Try to recycle banners from previous actions that have appropriate messaging.

Do you need any props, such as fake blood, oil,puppets or umbrellas? You might want patches made up for everyone to wear. If you are using any equipment/devices, think about if you want these branded or messaged.

Putting on an Arts workshop in the run up to the action can be a great way to get stuff made and for people to get excited about the action. It also gives people an opportunity to make connections with the people that will be taking action with them.

Colour scheme

Consider a colour scheme from the XR design programme, 2 or 3 colours is good. This helps in making assets and graphics that all pull together to make the look and feel that you’re after - the branding. It makes it look more coordinated, as if you know what you’re doing, and easily recognisable.

You might extend the colour scheme to the dress code for wider participants or ask specifically for smart wear or something else more specific.

Performances

Do you want any performances? Is this a new performance or a performance group that already exists e.g. oil slickers, red rebels, dirty scrubbers, discobedience.

If you are using an existing group make sure you coordinate plans, so they have space to prepare, can suit your timings and know the space they will perform in and any other relevant info.

If it’s a new performance. Get someone to look after this element. They might need outfits sourcing or making. They will need to practice at least once. Bear in mind how the performance will be perceived by your audience. Things that seems obvious to us are often not to your average joe and there’s always a risk that we end up looking like the mad hippies that we actually are!

Here is some more guidance on performances at actions: Music, Words and Performance, and some guidance on organising the more technical side: Programming and Stage Management and Sound and Power.

Rhythms

Rhythms always bring energy to an action and help sustain an action particularly if it is more than a couple of hours long. They attract a crowd and so help with outreach.

Connect up with Rhythm links early so they can bring as many drummers as possible and you can plan their activity together. For some actions that have a specific vibe you may want to be more prescriptive about the beat, eg. for a funeral march you may want a single drummer.