We love it when our students are given the opportunity to flex their creativity with output that connects with the people across Bristol. . . and beyond. As well as being a fun place to visit, Bristol Aquarium incorporates marine conservation and education into its visitor experience, which resonates with our sensibilities. The display of all 45 posters runs from 6th March to the end of August, 2024.

Sunny Hubbard, General Manager at Bristol Aquarium says:

"Bristol Aquarium and boomsatsuma are passionate about connecting local communities to wildlife, and the creative arts, respectively. By coming together to collaborate in an organic way we aimed to achieve some inspirational pieces of artwork that could be displayed at Bristol Aquarium for visitors to enjoy.

As a live client, we presented a list of topics to the students and briefed them on what the artwork should aim to achieve, with some specific topics including coral reef conservation or mangrove habitat conservation, to more broader topics such as sharks, allowing students flexibility to create designs around the topic. We provided our brand guidelines including our fonts, brand colours, and some tips on how to present imagery in a clear way. Following the brief, the students broke out into smaller groups to explore what directions they could take their art pieces and went away to get to work.

"Boomsatsuma hosted a gallery launch night, inviting friends and family members to come and see the completed artwork pieces printed in their full glory on display in the Bristol Aquarium foyer and it was fantastic for us to be there on the evening to congratulate the students in person and meet the people who put their creativity behind creating something that we could be proud to display.

"The artwork is absolutely wonderful and thought-provoking which is absolutely what we aim to achieve with engaging our visitors about the natural world, so we couldn’t be happier with the result and are very proud of the students’ achievements. Thank you to all involved in the project and we look forward to future collaborations with boomsatsuma."

This project, incorporated into students’ Year 12 Creative and Digital Media curriculum, gave each student free reign to respond to the client brief, decide on the messaging for their posters and design artwork using a suite of design tools.

Lindsey Davis, Creative and Digital Media Teacher, comments:

"These students have truly excelled in their recent project, producing a series of dynamic and thoughtful posters. The journey from initial concept to digital execution has been an incredible process to witness and support. Their creativity, dedication, and skill have culminated in work that is both visually striking and deeply engaging. It’s been a privilege to see their ideas come to life in such a meaningful way."

Positive comments from all students included:

Nova Martin:

"Seeing my final product at the exhibition really made this whole project complete. Knowing how much work I put into the poster and seeing how many people turned up to view everyone's work was amazing."

Ellie Rockell:

"Overall I found the exhibition evening really enjoyable because my family got to see my work and I got to celebrate my classmates' success with everyone. I loved everything about the evening and the atmosphere was really positive."