National Trust for Scotland

About the project

This summer, The National Trust for Scotland created six new collections policies that aim to improve how they manage and use the things they care for inside the Trust’s many historic homes and workplaces.

NTS sought McAteer Photo’s help in illustrating the front cover of each policy and asked us to come up with a creative approach. We were asked to sum up the essence of each policy and work within a pre-defined front cover design.

Our idea of featuring hands and National Trust objects fitted with the people-centred nature of the policies and the organisation’s desire to build unique visitor experiences. We then set about designing a creative proposal and trialing test images to show the client the concept in principle. Together, we worked out the execution and logistics and recced the proposed shoot location of Pollok House. The Trust’s Head of  Collections and Interiors and curators put forward object suggestions and sought volunteer models from staff, friends and visitors to NTS properties.

We had one day to shoot all the scenarios in the fabulous location of Pollok House on the south side of Glasgow but were required to work around the public visitors to the property. We created a timed shoot list and model call sheets, defined team roles and kept our kit and operation to a minimum to be as efficient and unobtrusive as possible. The advanced site visit familiarised us with the layout of the house and gave us potential locations to consider for each of the scenes, but we were flexible on the day and chose the final positions based on the lighting conditions, the final selection of objects and the busyness of the house.

You can see the final result of an on-brief eclectic collection of contemporary images that align with each of the policies below along with the chosen images which have been incorporated into the National Trust for Scotland’s front cover designs.

See more of our lifestyle photography here.