The Brentwood Bunting Project: flying the flag for creativity in Brentwood
Posted on July 14, 2022, by Nicola Lighterness
Community and creativity are two of the things we do best. The Blue Serif team live and breathe creativity, and we love sparking that little light of imagination and inspiration in others; not only in our clients, but in the wider community, too. We’ve long been champions of creativity in Brentwood and within Essex, and so when Brentwood Art Trail once again asked us to exhibit a community art piece, we knew that it really had to fly the flag for creativity in Brentwood.
Creating the Brentwood Bunting Project
When we started to think about creativity in Brentwood, and in particular in relation to Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we knew that we really wanted people to express themselves creatively in a variety of ways.
In the past we have created beautiful Brentwood Art Trail pieces in fixed mediums; first the #MyBwdArtTrail Wall in 2019 which allowed the community to draw on a huge map of Brentwood, and then the Discover Our Brentwood mural, whereby we asked the people of Brentwood and the surrounds to submit a photograph of Brentwood during lockdown. These pieces were both beautiful in their own right, but for 2022, we really wanted people to express themselves creatively in any medium they chose.
And how to bring this all together to create one art piece and celebrate the Jubilee at the same time? Through the Brentwood Bunting Project, of course!
Huge congratulations must also go to the designs chosen as our winners of the Brentwood Bunting Project. The overall winner was Sue’s alcohol ink ’70’ pennant, with Jesamine-Bleu’s lovely pennant depicting various icons and items that are treasured by Her Majesty the Queen as runner up. Also highly commended were designs by Michelle in the adult category (fabric queen bunny design) and Bella in the children’s category (stylised Union Jack).
Reaching out for community creativity
Knowing that we wanted to bring all of the finished expressions of creativity together into one piece, we set about creating the Brentwood Bunting Project. Through reaching out to local schools, local retailers and even going on local radio, Phoenix FM’s The Arts Programme, we sparked that little light of creativity in the Brentwood community.
The submissions came rolling in, and 121 entries later, we had enough beautiful pennants to decorate the whole of Brentwood…or at the very least, create a fantastic digital piece to go on display at Brentwood Theatre for the duration of the Art Trail!
Community creativity meets social media
But our talented design team didn’t stop there. Once the digital piece was complete, we also selected some of our favourite designs to take our digital art to another level. We wanted to create something which would allow the people of Brentwood to create even more art. As such, the idea of our very own Instagram Story filters was born.
Our team took some of their favourite entries and used them to create a 3D animation which was suitable to be submitted to Instagram for use as a filter on the app’s popular Stories feed. Accessed via QR codes at every venue on the Brentwood Art Trail, these filters could then be used to snap a selfie, or something of interest within Brentwood, with some of our favourite bunting pennant designs decorating the top of the shot. The designs changed each week during the trail to really showcase some of the creativity in Brentwood. We love that so many people got involved with the Art Trail by taking photos using our exclusive Brentwood Bunting Project filters!
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Showcasing creativity in Brentwood through the Brentwood Art Trail
The 2022 Brentwood Art Trail was another resounding success, and we’re so pleased to have inspired yet more creativity in Brentwood through the Brentwood Bunting Project. We also loved getting creative away from our desks ourselves, by taking part in one of the Art Trail’s mini paint parties, run by Express Yourself Paint Parties, and we enjoyed being sponsors of the event yet again as well as creating the official Art Trail brochure.
Huge thanks as always must go to Villene Hyam, whose organisation skills mean that the Brentwood Art Trail gets bigger and better every year. Thank you for yet again accommodating our crazy ideas! And when it comes to creativity in Brentwood, who knows what we’ll come up with next year?!