HM Border Force asked us to design a sustainable exhibition stand for the Southampton Boat Show. Their goal was clear: create their most engaging presence yet, while reducing environmental impact at every stage.

We created a distinctive, interactive space that brought Border Force’s maritime work to life. 

A Border Force jet ski formed a standout centrepiece, supported by digital screens and a special appearance from a Border Force search dog helped draw additional footfall and created genuine moments of connection.

We also incorporated a UK coastline map and links to Project Kraken to encourage conversations around maritime crime reporting, helping turn the stand into an educational touchpoint as well as a visual attraction.

Eco‑Friendly Materials and Low‑Carbon Production Choices

• Replaced plastics with fibre‑based, recyclable packaging aligned with event recycling policies.
• Recycled or responsibly sourced materials for all merchandise.
• Printed collateral on recycled paper, with carbon offset through verified UK tree‑planting initiatives.
• Designed a modular exhibition stand that’s built for repeated use.
• Used PVC‑free substrates throughout the display.

HM Border Force’s sustainable exhibition stand delivered strong long‑term value through a modular design that reduces waste, lowers future costs and supports environmentally responsible event production.

The stand earned second place in the Southampton Boat Show’s Environmental Awards and achieved exceptional engagement, with visitor interaction more than doubling compared with the previous year despite lower overall attendance, demonstrating the impact of smart design, clear storytelling and interactive features.

Having produced the assets for the National Apprenticeship Week for over three years via Print Marketplace. We were delighted to secure responsibility for delivering the National Apprenticeship Week for 2026.

The Challenge

The client needed a unified and cohesive set of design themes for multiple skills and apprenticeship related celebration events, which historically had lacked consistency.

Think

The Department for Education sought to enhance the prestige associated with government-led celebration programs and introduce a clear visual hierarchy that would distinguish the purpose of each event.

We needed to ensure that assets were more accessible, consistent, and user-friendly for internal departments, partners, employers, training providers, and wider stakeholders.

Create

We defined the brand architecture, improved accessibility, the visual relationships between events, and created a scalable design system that future‑proofed the events.

Our work spanned creative concepting, brand development, asset creation, toolkit creation and support across design, digital, and print channels.

Deliver

We delivered a comprehensive suite of assets within a tight timeframe, from refreshed logos and toolkits to countdown animations, social badges, and graduation materials. Together, these elements created a more consistent identity and strengthened recognition of the NAW brand across every channel.

Magnet specialise in beautifully crafted kitchens and is split into two key business areas; Retail (consumer focused) and Trade (focused on Trades people within the industry).

In 2024, they launched a series of 6 store-in-store concessions within Selco Warehouses, a nationwide timber and builders’ merchant with c.75 stores across the UK.

We were tasked with developing the brand look and feel within these concessions, working closely with the Magnet team to develop specific propositional, product and promotional messaging for their new audience.

This also led to refreshing their existing brand guidelines to ensure we could deliver a strong brand presence and longevity for the client’s new partnership.

We were able to utilise the breadth of our services and subject matter experts across Creative Agency, Retail & Brand Experience and Print Production. Our end-to-end offering enabled a more streamlined solution, calling upon wider expertise when needed.

The initial rollout covered 6 stores across Greater London, including the flagship store.

We pride ourselves in working collaboratively with our clients and we know that sometimes creative direction can change. After the initial roll, Magnet decided that they wanted to invest in bespoke installations to maximise the potential of their new partnership with Selco

At this stage, we onboarded our Retail & Brand Experience team to create the tailored concept and refined the messaging to suit. This led to the Croydon store becoming the new flagship, and a template to now be rolled out across other stores.

We are now in the process of building a universal kit of contents for future store rollouts to help maintain client budgets and ROI.

Despite the change in direction, good communication and reliable project management enabled the campaign to run smoothly and efficiently.

Aberdeen is a global investment company structured around three core businesses- Investments, Adviser and Interactive Investor. In 2020, we took over the production of their series of four podcasts to ensure continuity of production and output as part of their existing series to expand their audience, deepen brand engagement and optimise the potential of their audio channels.

Working alongside their teams, we reviewed their processes, aims, target audience and strategies to understand the brand’s voice whilst celebrating the nuance and diversity already on offer. We established consistency across their series by centralising production processes, providing quick wins in terms of turnaround times, enhancing audio quality and industry-standard production values, and additionally introducing capabilities for broadcast quality live and remote recordings.

As well as offering production support, working closely with abrdn we continue to develop new concepts and strategies to promote the series across social media and on commercial radio in the US and UK, ensuring new and current podcasts are maximised. We regularly hold meetings to maintain schedule momentum and to ensure audience retention.

By migrating the remotely recorded podcasts to a dedicated online platform, aberdeen has increased its podcast production to 8 audio series available on its website, Spotify, Apple and YouTube reaching an audience of 26,000 listeners per month. Not only are they increasing the number of listeners, but new listeners are tuning into previous episodes establishing a loyal and engaged audience.

Thank you for your invaluable help, skill and professionalism to get the first abrdn adviser podcast successfully produced. Our stats show that the podcast has been very well received by advisers and the format is one that is now very much part of abrdn adviser’s content planning.

Shona Macdonald, Senior Content Writer, The aberdeen Adviser Podcast