Small project, big butterfly

For the last two years, I designed the exhibition ‘Sensational Butterflies’ for the Natural History Museum. (See link here). This year, the front lawn where they usually exhibit the live butterfly show was closed for refurbishment which meant, naturally, no show. In its place I worked on this much smaller butterfly project for them. Ironically, it’s a display about the world’s largest butterfly – the Queen Alexandra Birdwing.

Fascinating fact: the adult females have a wingspan reaching up to 28 centimetres which is about the length of a sheet of A4. Imagine that flapping around.

The two display cases are on show at the wonderful Tring branch of the Natural History Museum. Link below.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/tring.html

(post by Tanya)

A picture of summer at the Natural History Museum

Sensational Butterflies is running for a second year on the front lawn of the Natural History Museum. I designed and artworked the graphics from my little studio here in Crystal Palace. I have to say it was a genuine pleasure using Harry Taylor's photos - such incredible macro photography... an education in itself.  

If you can't make it in person, go to their website for a 360 tour with an expert. 

Show runs until 16 September

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/sensational-butterflies.html

(post by Tanya) 

Natural History Museum: illustrations for visitor app

You may have heard that the Natural History Museum has had an overhaul. Gone is the dinosaur that dominated Hintze Hall and in its place is a vast whale skeleton, suspended from the ceiling. While working on that little project they also added display cases around the new addition. They approached us to create vector illustrations for their visitor app. Sounds pretty simple, right? The challenge was that they needed 170 rocks, 120 minerals, 35 seabirds and 40 pheasants on a very short deadline. Not only did it require we use our drawing, retouching and design skills, it also demanded our attention-to-detail, or should that be our borderline-obsessive-attention-to-detail to get it done. Are we allowed to say we're really chuffed with the result? We think so.

Download the finished app on their website:

www.nhm.ac.uk

Sensational Butterflies at the Natural History Museum

Sensational Butterflies at the Natural History Museum is open! I designed and artworked the exhibition graphics for the show. It's a live butterfly experience, so it's something of a departure for me. Happy feelings. 

The show runs from 31 March to 17 September 2017.

See the full story about the design here:

http://chutneychorus.com/#/exhibition-natural-history-museum/

(post by Tanya)

Chutney Chorus update

Here's what's going on or coming up for Tanya:

1. Lead 2D design for the Natural History Museum show Sensational Butterflies, a live butterfly show held in the grounds of the museum. It runs from the end of March until mid-September 2017. 

2. Various projects for Museum of London. These include animated GIFs and print design to market talks and events, and teachers' packs for the education team. 

3. Working alongside Alice Graham (curator/project manager), she is working on Agatha Christie: A Life in Photographs. This is the third leg of the tour, showing at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff from June 2017. 

p.s. We've added our 2017 New Year's greetings anime to our GIF page. Look out for the spinning rooster head and you've found it:

https://chutneychorus.com/gifs/

Coral Reefs: Secret Cities of the Sea, Natural History Museum

Recently I was approached by the Natural History Museum to help out on the exhibition Coral Reefs: Secret Cities of the Sea. krow communications had already created the wonderful campaign for the show – my brief was to adapt their work for entrance and ticket desk graphics. Explaining the concept behind the campaign, krow say ‘the idea … is to highlight the similarities between jobs that keep a city running and the roles of different species within the coral reefs.’

I have to admit I felt the pressure of doing the campaign justice while making the graphics work at exhibition scale. For me, narrative and movement are key to compelling exhibition design and looking at the architecture, I decided to make all elements in the composition – the seabed and sea creatures – move towards the central entrance. 

In a lovely coincidence I discovered that one of my long-term clients, Horniman Museum and Gardens, were involved on the content side. Take at look at this fascinating time-lapse vid of the aquarium build for the show: 

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/aquarium-time-lapse.html

This really was a great project and the first time I’ve worked with the Natural History Museum. Not only was the work exciting, I tackled the biggest Photoshop file I’ve ever come across … Captain Ahab’s got nothing on me!

Coral Reefs: Secret Cities of the Sea
Natural History Museum
27 March - 13 September 2015
www.nhm.ac.uk/coralreefs

www.krowcommunications.com

All images copyright of Natural History Museum. 

(post by Tanya)