Globally, democracy is in decline. But faced with huge challenges that we can only tackle together, it’s more important than ever. So we partnered with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy to devise an exhibition to take their work to the heart of Parliament.

It is clearer than ever that human dignity and social progress are closely linked to democratic freedoms. But democracy is not easy or inevitable. We need accountable, inclusive, and open political systems to nurture good ideas, challenge the abuse of power, support the rule of law and work together to take action.
Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is the UK public body dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world. They came to us in search of an exhibition that would raise awareness of what they do, showcase the importance, value and impact of their work in an accessible way and encourage UK parliamentarians to get involved in their political party programmes.

Inspired by a reflection from WFD’s then Chair of Governors on the nature of democracy as a garden, we began by embracing the ‘Garden of Democracy’ as the core theme of the exhibition. This reflects the fact that democracies, just like gardens, need constant tending if they are to flourish and thrive. The work of WFD and its partners are key to sustaining this growth.


We wanted to create a space that was vibrant and would stand out in a busy setting. Working predominantly within the WFD identity, bright and bold colours are combined with striking graphic shapes made up of glyphs from the typeface and designed to resemble plants.
The unified graphic language of the garden comes to life in a different way on each panel, unique to each theme, reinforcing the idea of that democracy needs many things to flourish.

We worked with the WFD Communications and External Affairs team, to devise the structure for the exhibition and support the development of the panel copy. Scale is particularly important here – supersized headlines, quotes and statistics are designed to capture the attention of parliamentarians passing by, accompanied by more detailed text for those who are looking for a deep dive.


The final venue was Portcullis House. But the nature and complexity of the application process meant that we needed to create designs that were adaptable and flexible to a range of possible exhibition spaces. The end result is modular and immersive, with the panels arranged in an organic way that is designed to invite people in and reflects that nature of wandering through a garden.

It was important that the exhibition could carry through online, reaching a broader audience beyond those in Westminster. We worked with the WFD team to create a series of bespoke assets for their digital channels, bringing the identity to life in motion to further support the idea of a growing garden.
The exhibition ran in Portcullis House for six weeks. Over that time, WFD directly engaged with over 40 parliamentarians in the space. International delegations from Jordan and the Solomon Islands – and the Speaker of the House (WFD’s Patron) whose office sponsored the exhibition – also paid a visit.

A poster and board member op-ed was featured in the House Magazine and was delivered to every MP and Peers office on the Parliamentary Estate, driving attention and interest in the exhibition. The online campaign, together with the profile of the physical exhibition itself, also led to a significant uplift in social impressions and traffic to the WFD website.
Soapbox’s support and expertise were indispensable to the process of designing and producing the exhibition. The creative team were friendly and responsive, and we were delighted with the final result.
Chloe Tait, Director of Communications and External Affairs
