“To the students I say that the honour and dignity of this university are largely in your hands, and I look to you to initiate and hand down worthy traditions to your successors.”
Spoken by King Edward VII at the formal opening of England’s first civic university, these words preceded 125 years of creativity, discovery, action and ideas at the University of Birmingham. To celebrate this unique history we were asked to create an exhibition in the Aston Webb building. This was our second commission for this space and following the success of ‘History Through Objects’ we upped the anti by adding background vinyls to all bays and archways, to help fully transform the spaces and draw attention to the objects and story of the University’s foundations, the people and how they responded in times of crisis and the social impact of student life.
Using the clock face of ‘Old Joe’ we created a stained glass design for the archways above each bay, using different colour ways for each section. Each bay had an individual touch, using collection items to create background motifs to reflect the interpretation. To prove how graphics can draw attention, we added a marble effect around a large plaque and a staff member walked past and commented that they’d never noticed it before.
One key story that the team wanted to explore was the memorial plaques in the main entrance to the building. The University was in it’s infancy during World War I and many staff and students served, and those that lost their lives are immortalised on the marble plaques on either side of the atrium along with those from World War II. This is a busy space and we wanted to create something impactful to showcase some of those that are listed but it couldn’t intrude into the space and we didn’t want to add anything to the memorials themselves. Instead we used our experience from projects at Compton Verney to create column wraps. We used the background motifs from the archways to carry through the visual language of the entire display and added to additional wraps to the entrance of the hall for interpretation of the stained glass window.
Displays featured reproductions that we printed onto paper, fabric and card to add different textures and visual keys to the original works. All labels and panels were printed on card to be recyclable. We added backgrounds and base panels into cases to bring a cohesive look across the exhibition. We then created a feedback and inclusion space where students and visitors could add their feedback and stories about life at the University.
