Uniforms

This large touchscreen sits in front of a display of Irish army uniforms in Athlone Castle. Visitors can see details of the uniforms, and learn about the soldiers who wore them.

Working as part of Elbow Productions, we designed and developed the application, and helped produce the content.

Capture the Castle

This game revolves around the sieges of Athlone in the 17th century.
As the commander in charge of an attacking army, the player has to capture the town before the supplies run out.

The choices faced by the player are based on real events, but many have humorous outcomes. Although aimed at younger visitors, the game has proved popular with adults too.

We designed and wrote the game working as part of Elbow Productions, with cartoon illustrations and animations from Matt Partridge.

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Athlone in Film

This kiosk in Athlone Castle displays film clips of Athlone from 1922 to the present day.

The content was researched and edited by Elbow Productions, and we developed the carousel-style menu for a large touchscreen.

Confederate Wars

The Irish rebellion of 1641 marked the beginning of one of the bloodiest periods in the island's history, and triggered a war that continued until the 1650s when Oliver Cromwell's army re-conquered the country.

This kiosk in Athlone Castle explains the events of the Irish Confederate Wars, and explores their impact on the people who lived through them.

Working as part of Elbow Productions, we helped to research and write the content, and present it in an engaging style. The characters were illustrated by Elsa Godfrey.back to the top

Going Places

The Museum of Somerset wanted a fun activity looking at the methods of transport that have shaped Somerset.

We worked with Elbow Productions in a freelance capacity, to design a game to appeal to all age groups.

The players make their way around a map of Somerset, stopping at famous landmarks.

At each stage, the player must answer a question on a different topic. The answers are choices of transport, illustrated with archive photos and drawings.

Medals

The Somerset Military Museum wanted a kiosk to tell the human stories behind some of the medals on display.

We worked as part of Elbow Productions to design and build the software.

The geographical context of the stories was seen as important, so the campaign location is shown on a world map as the visitor browses the list.

The individual stories are compellingly written, and brought to life with video interviews and slideshows.

Medieval Life

The Museum of Somerset wanted to show a selection of local church bench carvings to illustrate medieval life in Somerset.

Working as part of Elbow Productions, we designed a fun activity for all ages.

Various aspects of medieval life are brought to life by cartoon characters, animated by Luke Marsh.

For each topic, the visitor has to examine carvings and choose one to answer a question.

Somerset Collectors

The Museum of Somerset wanted a kiosk to feature local collectors and their collections.

Working with Elbow Productions in a freelance capacity, we designed an interactive album with biography pages for each collector, and slideshows for each collection.

Curators can add more collections using a simple content management system.

Low Ham Mosaic

This spectacular Roman mosaic is one of the star attractions in the Museum of Somerset.

Elbow Productions were commissioned to tell the story of Dido and Aeneas, as depicted in the mosaic.

The story is brought to life with animation by Luke Marsh, narration and sound effects.

The mosaic's discovery in 1946 is also shown in a period newsreel.

Plymouth Pictured

Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery wanted to display some of their extensive collection of images.

Nick was employed by The Workhaus to design and build a networked system of kiosks with an overhead slideshow.

Visitors can browse images and videos by theme on the 4 kiosks. Curators can update the kiosks remotely, adding more images as they become available.

Painted Godiva

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum have several famous paintings of Coventry's icon, Lady Godiva. They wanted visitors to engage with the paintings in a playful way.

We worked with the museum as part of Elbow Productions to devise activities that could be appreciated by all ages.

The activities raise more questions than they answer, leaving visitors to decide for themselves.

Digging for Victory

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum wanted to tell the stories of Coventry people during the war, in their own words.

Elbow Productions turned 26 oral histories into short videos, using montages of supplied and sourced photos. The finished result is a series of personal mini documentaries, with a televisual feel.

We designed the menu system to complement the tone of the videos, arranged by theme.

Rationing Game

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum wanted an activity to teach visitors about food rationing.

Working as part of Elbow Productions, we designed the Rationing Game for families to play and learn together.

Players must select recipes according to the ingredients they have available.

To make the rations stretch, they can use strategies including substituting ingredients, growing vegetables, trading rations, and the black market.

Bacchus and Ariadne

A version of Giordano's famous painting occupies its own room in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.

Elbow Productions were commissioned to produce a kiosk to tell the story of the painting and the Greek legend.

The kiosk lets visitors explore the painting by touching the characters. They can also learn about the painting's history and conservation.

We told the story of Bacchus and Ariadne using an intuitive book interface, featuring original illustrations by Elsa Godfrey.

Coventry Time

Pocket watches and their makers are the subject of this kiosk in The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. We worked as part of Elbow Productions to design and build the software.

Visitors can browse the collection of watches, and learn about the people who produced them.

The manufacturing processes are explored in a 'build a watch' game. Players learns the purpose of various components which they choose for their watch.

The watch is then assembled, wound up, and animated to show the correct time.

Interactive Art Table

This is a pair of tables in the modern art gallery of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. We designed and built the software with Elbow Productions, in a freelance capacity.

Visitors can sit and browse art works on the built-in touchscreen. Each exhibit can have multiple pages of text with images and audio clips.

There is also a games menu, featuring activities designed for all ages. The activities relate to modern art, and include a gallery quiz and puzzles with selectable difficulty levels.

Birth of a Diamond

The Natural History Museum of London commissioned this 3D animation as part of their Diamonds exhibition to explain how diamonds are formed.

Nick created the animation with a team of animators, as part of Elbow Productions.

The animation takes the visitor on a journey three thousand years in the past and one hundred and seventy kilometers beneath the surface of the Earth.

After watching the diamonds form under immense pressure, the visitor is blasted out of a volcano before being buried under tons of rock.

Your Coventry

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum commissioned Elbow Productions to showcase some of their collections relevant to Coventry.

As well as browsing objects and photographs, visitors can listen to oral histories, and follow links to selected websites.

A separate requirement was an archive of temporary exhibitions by community groups. The curators can add more exhibitions as they happen.

A quiz game aimed at younger visitors features a cartoon curator, drawn by Luke Marsh.

Forgiveness

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum wanted to measure the impact of a gallery devoted to the topic of forgiveness. We worked as part of Elbow Productions to design and build a voting system.

Visitors are prompted to think about a moral issue, and to vote on it. They can then see how other people voted, and read relevant stories of forgiveness from around the world.

At the end of the gallery, another kiosk asks visitors if they have changed their mind. The votes are compared with the original poll to measure the gallery's effectiveness.

Gibraltar Point Interactive Guide

The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust commissioned this kiosk for the visitor centre at Gibraltar Point national nature reserve. We designed and built the software in a freelance capacity with Querceus Design.

The kiosk acts as a guide to the reserve and some of the species found there. Visitors navigate using a map, and can read about the history and features of the different areas.

Each area has a gallery of relevant species to browse. Information includes frequency graphs of birds, and high quality photographs taken on the reserve.