Gary Seath 3 months ago
Isla Fraser is aged 13 from Elgin, whose winning design will be digitised to enhance Forces Children Scotland’s youthful identity on its website, social media channels, and wider resources.
Having co-produced the charity’s vibrant rebrand, creative control was back in the hands of young people to use whatever creative medium worked for them.
The creative brief was simple – to create something to help friends, educators, and professionals from non-armed forces community backgrounds to better understand their identity as a forces child.
Isla Fraser is pictured with sister, Mathilda, holding her winning Forces Children Scotland mascot design.
“Highland cows are a classic, easily recognisable Scottish animal, they are also large, strong, and hardy while being kind and approachable. Their personality is a good choice for a mascot, especially one that is going to represent the armed forces to younger children, being altogether a protective and steadfast figure.
I sketched the cow with pencils then when I had the design nailed down I used paint pens to complete his design on paper. It took a couple of days to draw, a whole day dedicated to trying to get the camo correct.”
Isla is from a family with a proud military background. Her dad presently serves in the Army in the Highlands, and her grandfather, a native Highlander, served in the Royal Engineers.
“Isla is very creative and we are always so amazed by her ideas – she is always writing stories and world-building with complex characters and histories and this comes to life in her illustrations.
We have a very artistic family, and we always encourage the children to express themselves through art, so when I saw the competition shared on social media, I knew this was right up Isla’s street. Isla’s grandparents are extremely proud and see this as a forerunner of future successes and we agree.”
Isla’s winning design focuses on a highland cow wearing a military-styled helmet and a camouflage overcoat featuring our charity branding.
‘We’ve been so impressed with the great ideas that forces children from across Scotland have submitted as part of our Mascot Competition!
The entries that children from serving, veteran, and reservist families sent in really demonstrated their creativity – from vibrant colours to some great original designs, the submissions really brought to life what it means to grow up in a forces family in Scotland.
All the entries were winners in our eyes, but we sadly had to pick one to be the new Forces Children Scotland mascot. Our judging panel felt the winning entry had a unique Scottish flavour, and we were blown away by the attention to detail in Isla’s design.”
###############ENDS###############
For more information please contact Gary Seath, Marketing, Communications, and Development Manager – gary.seath@forceschildrenscotland.org.uk.
Images are available upon request. Further details can be accessed via our website article – Mascot Design Competition Winner Announced – Forces Children Scotland.
We support over 13,000 children and young people from armed forces communities across Scotland to realise their potential and thrive.
This is achieved through the delivery of mental health & wellbeing, youth participation, family support, education & learning, and policy services to meet their unique support needs. Moreover, we assist educators, professionals, and decision-makers to enhance their understanding and practice to meet the unique support needs of this community.
We put the lived experience of children and young people from this community at the heart of everything we do, and work directly with our team to co-produce our projects, services, and campaigns to ensure we collaborate as a collective force for good to achieve our vision of making Scotland a place where all children & young people from armed forces communities can realise their potential and thrive.
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