FORGOTTEN MUSEUMS
F I N A L I M A G E S
"After a short trip to London, in which I visited many museums and galleries, I became inspired to create a visual response to these locations. Alongside the big name museums there are smaller, less advertised facilities, that could easily shut down with no one noticing, so while they are still frequently visited, the lack of tourist attraction makes them open to risk of closure."
I decided to focus on three museums for this brief, choosing 'Grants Museum of Zoology', 'The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology', and 'Sir John Soane's Museum'. I proposed the poster designs to represent what 'could be', if the museums shut down. Grants museum becoming abandoned, with the displays and taxidermy animals remaining, as something an interested child would have to explore on their own, leading me to add a short slogan of sorts;
"Don't wait until its abandoned to explore"
For the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology I decided returning to its origins could be an ironic view of the museum closing, becoming buried, with the poster depicting its excavation, I also chose to make the archaeologist uncovering it people of colour, a specific decision made to highlight the reclaiming of artefacts that were taken by the British in early exploration of occupied countries, though I do appreciate that the objects housed in this museum are in current use for research purposes, and less of a display for tourists, which led to the caption;
"Don't wait until its buried to uncover its knowledge"
Sir John Soane's Museum contains so much in ways of art and artefacts that it was incredibly difficult to choose a point of focus for the poster. I eventually decided that the room of paintings would make a visually engaging poster, setting a scene of the paintings themselves being auctioned off due to the museums closure;
"Don't wait until its auctioned off to visit"
I believe the Grants Museum poster to be the strongest and most visually interesting of the three I produced, though I am satisfied with them overall. It was a challenge to set myself a live brief, to choose the criteria and 'force' myself to stick to it, I definitely learnt a lot in the short month I set myself for this.
