SAFER ROUTES TO SCHOOL - CARTOONS!

Safer Routes to School is a project that aims to encourage and enable children to walk or cycle to and from school. And what better way to get these serious messages across that with cartoons that attract children's attention!? Kids love looking at cartoons and if the cartoons can be turned into games all the better!

The aims of my cartoons:

    Help highlight and reduce the number of pedestrian and cyclist injuries.

    Help highlight and improve the safety of the journey to and from schools.

  Help highlight and reduce the number of car trips to and from schools.

    Help highlight and encourage walking and cycling to and from schools.

   Help highlight and educate children to cope with their local road environment.

    Help work with the community to create an environment which is safer for all.

Original email from Rosemary M - Safer Routes to School Project Officer, Cambridgeshire...

I work on a project called Safer Routes to School, our aim is to promote sustainable transport for the school run (walking, cycling and public transport) We work with schools in Cambridgeshire, and as well as traffic calming and associated engineering works we also have commissioned some education resources. Currently we are working on an interactive exhibit which demonstrates the health and environmental benefits of walking and cycling. I have attached a photo of the exhibit. The exercise bike in the photo is linked to the display which shows the calories burned during a 90 second session on the bike and compares them to an inactive journey in the car, there are also supporting quiz games to play on a linked computer.

I thought I would get in touch to ask about having a cartoon drawing of a street scene for a follow up to this project which would be used in an interactive presentation - I've put a link below to the sort of thing I mean as it is a bit hard to explain!

We have a company in Scotland making the interactive exhibit for us, they did the first stage and we are now extending the idea and as part of the computer package I want to have some interactive information screens, the example I have put in a link for you is a bit dull to look at but that is the basic idea that I am looking to use. Having looked at your website and liked your work, I wanted to get some idea of whether you would be interested in doing an illustration with the sort of content on the sample I sent you but obviously more attractive and interesting to look at!




The aims of Safer Routes To School is to create a healthy environment that is safe for children and young people to travel to and from school using sustainable forms of transport such as cycling and walking, thereby increasing their independence, and promote health and fitness.

Currently there's a vicious circle, parents and carers drive their children to school causing an increase in traffic and congestion around schools - big 4 x4's mounting pavements to find a drop off place. Fewer children walk or cycle to school. Parents and carers say todays roads are too dangerous. So the vicious circle continues. Safer Routes to School is aiming to break this cycle. Together we will nurture healthier pupils and staff members, reduce congestion around our schools and improve road awareness in children.




Here are other ways cartoons can be used to get your message across in a light humorous way...


How about using a cartoon character to get a very serious message across or for the kids to associate with? Nothing better! Cartoon characters are powerful tools that can be used to attract the eye, they can talk, explain and educate anyone about anything. They build relationships that translate into a loyal following. Pages and pages of text can go unread - but with a cartoon character helping to break it up then those message go in!

Here's 'STREETWISE' and ARCHIE VIMENTcartoon characters...


A 'Snakes and Ladders' type game to embed messages as the play!

This was the original outline of what was needed...
Here are the images and a link to the website where the game I like is. The snakes and ladders pdf was done by one of our team before he moved to another job. I had been thinking of having footprints instead of the ladders and pictures of rubbish and non-environmentally friendly vehicles like 4x4's instead of the snakes.

I changed things slightly and came up with this version...





Street Safety Cartoon - this cartoon outlined some of the things not to do in the street.
Original Brief..
Hi Richard, The remit of the Safer Routes to School Project is to encourage sustainable travel to school, such as walking and cycling and the use of public transport wherever possible - we try to discourage people from driving their kids to school!

The pdf was our initial ideas for this - sadly the Safer Routes logo did not get approval from our County Councillors and would need to be replaced by the one in the gif (attached) it's a grim image but they like it as we have used it for ages!!

The street picture I like is called 'watch out hazards about' and I would like something like this 3d pictorial map picture for our project. The idea is to get children to look at the picture and then when they hover over it with the computer mouse information boxes will appear about the safety level of an activity such as playing in the street, cycling dangerously and without a cycle helmet, skateboarding in the street kids trying to cross between parked cars, or the safest place to cross or unsafe parking or driving. So I would like a variety of images of road safety in the picture. This is the drawing I would need by the end of the month!

Some other ideas for the picture...

Car doing u turn, cyclists with passenger on the back of the bike, kids chasing a ball, a dog off the lead by the road, kids running out to an ice cream van, kids dashing across the road near the zebra crossing but not using it, kids playing chicken with traffic, kids messing about near the bus stop, kids cycling with hands off the handle bars, a lorry driver using a mobile phone.

If you could let me know if it would be possible for you to produce something for us along these lines?
This was the initial sketches which was approved and then taken to finished full colour artwork at A2 poster sized prints.






This was the 'spring' of the four seasonal cartoons drawn for Cambridgeshire's quarterly newsletter


The cartoon appeared on the cover as a taster to get them inside the newsletter where it appeared much later and illustrating a feature.



Here's another project for Safer Routes To School Cambridgeshire. I was asked to come up with come cartoons to go around their van. These were the photos provided with helpful sketches over the top of them. Below are the new set showing the cartoons in place...

















Can you see how the use of cartoons can illustrate serious messages in a way that children enjoy? I'm happy to discuss any ideas you may have!