In 1575, Queen Elizabeth I spent 19 days at Kenilworth Castle as the guest of Robert Dudley who sought her hand in marriage. To mark the 450th anniversary of his extreme spectacle of courtship, artist Lindsey Mendick was commissioned to create an installation in the Great Hall. Design Penguin were appointed to create the graphics to support this and to refresh some of the signage and interactives around the site.
Titled ‘Wicked Game’ the art installation is a series of sculptures based on a game of chess. We used that idea and the central figure (The Queen) to create a title treatment based on a crown using a heritage style font. We used punchy blues and reds for the large introductory and interpretation panels to stand out from the clay-coloured walls. This was carried on to handheld boards for visitors to use to explore the artwork. To store these, we installed holders and commissioned purpose made wooden boxes, all of which can be reused for future projects.
Click here to read more about the artist and the installation
As part of the site-wide celebration of Elizabeth I’s visit, we updated and refreshed interpretation panels, again using the blue and red from the artwork graphics to link these together. We also tackled some rather tired interactives. These units were easy to miss due to the grey graphics and didn’t really work for visitors. We livened up the graphics using a striking blue and large illustrations to catch the eye. We also added graphics to the reverse of the unit so that they are inviting regardless of how they are approached.
A final piece of the project was a new, permanent, interactive for the Gate House which features a large elaborate wood carving and fireplace. These original features are thought to have been commissioned by Robert for Elizabeth, and contain lots of hidden symbols of power, status and love. We created spotting boards, again pulling on our talented illustrator who redrew the symbols, for visitors to find these and ponder the purpose of what was permanent fixtures in the castle. The paddles were accompanied by a new introductory panel for the room, again pulling on the brand blue to add colour to the room.
