Working Freelance - More Big Things

Hello everyone, here I am, again, months late... (I think this may be a recurring theme) but here I am!

So it took a little while there, and there was lots of back and forth creating bits, reworking them to suit the needs of the project (not so much in terms of artwork, but in terms of writing and detail in the teacher pack) but the Durham Pride project is COMPLETED!!!

The aim was to get more people interested in coming to Durham Pride after they lost their funding, so the suitcases were initially taken around various community spaces in Durham, and now that the Durham Pride celebrations are over they will be shared around schools to help them learn about local and nation LGBTQIA+ history. There was a lot to put together with this one, the organisers wanted activity packs that students could use, handmade games, a QR code resource with films linked to queer history, a reading list and a teacher pack full of descriptions of the items as well as ideas for classroom activities. 

The organisers were keen to have something in the suitcases that demonstrated the importance of subcultures within the queer community, so I decided to create a dress up doll pack with blank clothing items, so that students could put their own designs into the clothing, and then use the dolls to create a stop motion animation with their own stories. These were drawn on procreate, and printed onto card.

They also discussed wanting something that celebrated British LGBTQIA+ icons, so I thought a great way to do this would be to make an LGBTQ+ Guess Who? game, which was the most time consuming to put together. I created my own list of British icons, and tried to generate a mix of historical queer icons, but also more current figures who fight for queer rights. I gathered some images of them, and then sketched some basic portraits out of them using Procreate, these were then put into a Canva template of the game cards, and printed onto card so they could be cut to size and inserted into the game board. 

There was also some key moments in British LGBTQIA+ history that the organisers wanted me to mention, and I thought one of the easiest ways to put this together was to create an LGBTQIA+ newspaper, that detailed these events from the 1960s up until now, so I wrote some short paragraphs of the stories, with all of the key information, and out these together with images on Procreate, and then printed them as mini zines.

The organisers were keen to have a QR code resource with links to films and videos detailing LGBTQIA+ history similarly to the stories in the newspaper, so I researched a series of videos on BBC Iplayer, Youtube, and generally online. I created the graphic to look like the audience is sitting in a cinema and staring up at the screen, and then all they had to do is scan the QR code of interest, these videos also go in date order. This also gave me an idea for a teacher activity, where they could set their classrooms up like a cinema with snacks and low lighting, giving students a bit of a cinema experience when watching the videos. 

The organisers originally wanted books to be included in the suitcase, but this didn't fit within the budget that I was given, so I decided to create a reading list with some of my favourite queer books included within that list. I created the graphic to look like a set of bookshelves, and I tried to include a range of graphic novels and academics texts, and aimed to include books that explored dual identities and all areas of queerness (especially trans-ness).

The last thing I needed to create was the teacher pack, which proved the most difficult as writing isn't my strongest point (which you can tell if you've been reading my blog). I started by adding photographs of each of the items and writing a description of what they were, and why they had been included in the pack. I then went onto add in some smaller classroom activities for teachers to choose from, as well as some legacy project ideas for those that want to extend the learning further. 

They also wanted me to create some stickers to give out to people in the local communities, so I took an image of the Durham skyline and traced it, and then digitally added the progress flag underneath, they were thrilled with this, which was great as it was so easy to do. I also decided on a wealth of curated items that I felt reflected the pride overall and our community, and the organisers were thrilled with this, I will include some of the images of these below.