HERE at Tangent we’re extremely proud to be working on the new grassroots campaign for the Scottish Independence Convention (SIC). Since winning the pitch, the whole studio has been energised by the work – it’s sparked lots of ideas and debates in our studio from day one.

Our overall objective, in partnership with the SIC, is to further the case for Scottish independence and build momentum, building up and keeping support amongst voters consistently above 50%. The campaign will primarily be aimed at voters who remain undecided and “soft No” voters who we believe can be convinced to join the cause over time. The political landscape is changing almost by the day, so it’s important that we keep the campaign for Scottish independence at the fore of the nation’s collective conscience.

In essence, we want to develop a strong visual identity that allows us to launch national campaigns but also celebrate all the good work that is currently being undertaken throughout the independence movement. We’ve had an incredible level of support this far in the process, and have met some inspirational people who are all devoting time and effort towards bringing about a better future for Scotland. We want the new campaign to celebrate this; the grassroots energy, enthusiasm, and positivity that were hallmarks of the original 2014 Yes movement.

Tangent has taken on several large projects in recent years that differ from the direction of conventional brands in that they must be built from the ground up. The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the People Make Glasgow city brand and the University of Dundee rebrand are all examples of projects we worked on that have involved, represented or directly concerned multitudes of different people from every conceivable background.

Similarly, there are many different strands to the case for independence, and so no one person or organisation could ever claim ownership of the movement.

The final design system that we develop will encourage people to input their own ideas, messages and materials into a more consistent “look and feel”, accessible by all, that will help us to gain traction across the country and move us all toward the shared goal of Scottish independence.

The process that we’ve mapped out has several distinct stages: The initial research phase we are in at the moment involves speaking to stakeholders and canvassing the opinions of the wider movement. We’ve been engaging with lots of different groups to get their thoughts and opinions, and have also been working with extensive data from voter surveys undertaken by the SIC.

The next step is to formulate a name and general direction of the campaign before we start to develop a range of possible visual approaches.

Once we have some graphic styles and designs in place we’ll take them out for audience testing to find out what works best with the target audience of undecided and “soft No” voters.

Once these ideas have been tested we’ll then tighten up and finalise the best solution before rolling it out: designing all the different elements that the public will come into contact with, such as the website, social media accounts, posters and printed materials.

We know how much a positive, effective campaign could mean to people all across the movement and we want to do the best job possible. To really make this campaign work it’s important that we start off on the right footing and have a comprehensive understanding of everyone’s aims and viewpoints from that start.

That’s why we would encourage everyone reading this article who is engaged with the Scottish independence movement to take part in a brief online survey.

The survey can be found at thisisit.scot/survey and will help us in filling any gaps in our understanding of the movement and its priorities at this moment in time. It will be available to complete until December 7, at which point we will move on to working on the design phase of the project.

The survey should only take around five minutes, and you can be assured that your responses will be completely anonymous and greatly appreciated by us as we work towards creating a resource to aid the SIC in its push for Scottish independence.