Cities are rich sources of visual material whether you’re looking for it or not. And playing on this is the new campaign for the Museum of Childhood at the V&A.

Agency AMVBBDO (the very same agency behind the WW1 Sainsbury’s Christmas ad) have worked with illustrators to create a collection of site specific adverts around the museum’s local area.

It’s a fun and memorable way for adverts and passers-by to engage with their physical environment. Particularly by connecting the experience of encountering the advert on the street to visiting the museum itself.

There’s even a nifty website with a map and gallery for those city explorers who want to find them all.

Communicating a message onto the urban landscape isn’t a new thing (hello graffiti!) but there have been some other creative projects worth mentioning.

If you live in Bristol you might remember Shadowing – an interactive technology where street lamps record and play with your shadow. Recipient of Watershed’s Playable City Award last year, the duo behind it have also been nominated as one of the Design Museum’s Digital Designs of the Year.

And this innovative design idea, by American company Rainworks, who produce rain activated messages with the simple but soppy soggy intention “to give people a reason to look forward to rainy days”. I know the UK could definitely use a few!

Seeing projects like these in person or coming across them online, reinforce how important looking at and being curious about your surroundings can be.

And, from our perspective they’re also a novel, engaging way to get people talking about your brand or project.
Not bad for a walk to the shops and back!