Award-winning newsletter design

Poplar HARCA is an award-winning housing and regeneration association based in East London, with a strong focus on community leadership and empowerment. Their resident newsletter, HARCA Life, shares local news, events and stories with over 8,000 readers.

When I joined Poplar HARCA's team in 2022, one of my first design challenges was reimagining their resident newsletter, HARCA Life. It wasn’t just about making it look good - it was about making it feel alive. I wanted the emails to be something people looked forward to opening.

So I got to work. Using Mailchimp, I introduced bold colours, playful animations and embedded videos to reflect the energy of HARCA’s neighbourhoods. The design needed to do justice to the stories - from regeneration updates to community celebrations - and be just as vibrant as the people behind them.

It’s been rewarding to see the results. Since the redesign, open rates have tripled, and the feedback from residents has been overwhelmingly positive. And now, HARCA Life was highly commended for Best Use of Email at the 2024 Comms2point0 Unawards.

The judges praised the colourful design, engaging animations, and rich media that made the newsletter stand out. For me, the real win is knowing the newsletter is doing its job - connecting people and making them feel part of something bigger.

Interested to see more of my work with Poplar HARCA? Check out my projects page.