So I had my installation, I had my photographs of the installation, now to introduce my design skills and get working on the poster.

I used my favourite photo as the main focus for the piece, accentuated the colours, added Watershed branding along with some short detail about the workshops and a website address. It didn’t quite feel right though, so I created a second poster using edited photographs from the kids workshop and some vector icons to convey more of the story behind the promotional material.

My designs where formally viewed by a panel of artistic enthusiasts and some staff members from the Watershed, a creative arts centre in Bristol, including Hannah Higginson the Engagement Project Producer and Veve who works in front of house as well as being a film-maker and workshop co-ordinator.

I presented both posters which received good feedback, everyone enjoyed the images of the children interacting with my installation and could gauge the message i was trying to get across. However for the most part everyone I discussed the project with was far more interested in my installation than my design. Everyone who saw it in or out of setting commented on it. On reflection I really feel I should have focused on the branding of the original piece, so that some of the questions raised by the installation where also answered there and then, and the question would not be “oooo whats that?” but “ooooo what is Cinekids at the Watershed?”.

I wish I had blended graphic design and installation in a more natural way and from the very beginning, why did I not plan to have informative design surrounding my installation? Some eye grabbing, ascetically pleasing, signage!?! On retrospect I think I should have made the installation complete with branding and signage, made the piece visible in the Watershed Box office window and potentially getting rid of the the fence line base, made some sort of fully interactive pulley…! 

However I am still very happy with my final designs and feel I have really started to grasp the concept of installation art, and how I can use it in conjunction with my Graphic Design. I really want to continue expanding on this knowledge and to also get more practice behind a camera.

Check out the discussion about my Cinekids project work here:

Zoe Horn Haywood: Illustration & Graphic Design – Extend your own Arts practice, Future Producers, Watershed 2013. from Watershed Bristol on Vimeo.