Lightbulb Moments

Victoria Gallery & Museum, University of Liverpool

2025

Client
University of Liverpool

Location
Liverpool

Role
Exhibition graphic design

This exhibition signalled the reopening of the Tate Hall at the Victoria Gallery & Museum following an extensive refurbishment. The 400sqm double-height vaulted gallery occupies the top floor of the Grade 2 Listed 1890s building originally designed by renowned Liverpool architect Alfred Waterhouse. The exhibition asks where do great ideas come from?, drawing from the museum’s collections to show how Liverpool has been a great place for many great ideas and to try and understand what it takes to have a great idea.

The design injects colour and visual energy to activate the displays. A visual vocabulary of scribbles and annotations draws from the process of working out ideas. Sustainability and future flexibility were built into the design specification with graphics making use of sustainble plywood, recycled cardboard and label mounts that can be re-used easily and repeatedly. We worked closely with guest curator Steve Slack to bring a dynamic presentation to text and graphic information. Off the main gallery are four alcoves enabling closer inspection of some of the ideas, including a collaborative co-creation project with a local primary school and a celebration of poetry with Liverpool poet Roger Cliffe-Thompson.