Designers Selected

I am delighted to announce that we have selected Gilles & Cecilie, in association with Nina Ansten, to be our designers for the new school graphics and signage. I met with four designers last week, all of whom had strong portfolios and great ideas. It was a very difficult decision but I made the selection based on several criteria:

1. Did the designer(s) understand our ambitions for the various spaces?
2. Were they willing to collaborate closely with our Design Group?
3. Did they have good communication skills?
4. Were they enthusiastic and sympathetic to the spirit of creativity at Tallis?
5. Did they have relevant experience?
6. Were they able to cope with the scale of the commission and within the time constraints?

We have arranged two day long design workshops in December at Tate Modern. I felt it was important that the Design Group (a mixture of staff and students) was able to work offsite, uninterrupted and in an inspiring space. As you probably know, Tate Modern has made use of its various circulation spaces to create engaging and interactive displays that support the work exhibited in the main galleries. The first workshop will focus on developing ideas and a general concept for the wall spaces and signage. The second, about 3 weeks later, will be an opportunity to review the initial designs and provide feedback to the artists. They will then have about a week to create the finished designs. This Thursday the designers will meet the architects, the building contractor and signage company and visit the new school site.

I will create a blog specifically for the project so that we can keep the whole community informed about the progress of the designs and gather useful feedback. Watch this space!