Gloucestershire College lecturers create Gloucester Tall Ships artwork

Gloucestershire College lecturers have created interactive artwork to tie in with Gloucester Tall Ships Festival.

The college’s graphics team successfully secured a partnership with Gloucester BID to design the artwork for a family fun trail this month.

Jess Colley and Ellie Toy, lecturers in graphic design, created designs for 12 different window displays across Gloucester.

As part of the process, they had to put together a proposal and pitch their ideas alongside other artists, before finding out their plans had been chosen by Gloucester BID.

Jess Colley said: “Putting together the proposal and going through that process has proven to our students that we can do it too. We’ve used it as a learning experience, talking to our students about the process and putting together a proposal for big project like this. It’s been good for us to have a creative challenge too!”

The family-friendly designs feature some interactive elements and photo opportunities. Wanting the trail to fully appeal to families, the designs are inspired by children’s illustration books, with a ‘wonky and rustic’ style.

The creations include giant crabs, octopus and parrots, as well as seaweed, ships, a 6ft shark and a chest full of treasure. All the artwork was created using recycled cardboard.

Jess continued: “The impact on the environment is important – there’s no waste, and we’re recycling. Local supermarkets and businesses have been kind enough to donate cardboard and it’s been a bit of a family effort gathering it all.”

They’ve also had lots of opportunity to link with the local community and meet the business owners whose windows will be hosting the artwork. They’ve been out and about visiting the spaces, before putting together designs to work with the spaces available.

Jess said: “It’s been nice going in and meeting the people. They’ve been really lovely and it’s great to work with the community more. We’re hoping to continue doing more work with Gloucester BID and seeing how we can involve our students in the future.”