Latest project story

The Green Estate

We designed the exhbition space and identity for a new exhibition showcasing the work of digital art studio Atomhawk.

Author Written by Tom

Other Worlds: The Art of Atomhawk is a new exhibition for the Great North Museum: Hancock, showcasing the work of digital art studio Atomhawk. Cafeteria were invited by GNM to plan and curate the exhibition space, and to design the graphic identity used throughout the interpretation and marketing.

From their studios in Gateshead and Vancouver, Atomhawk create world-class concept art, marketing art and UI/UX design for games, film and digital media. Their artists have contributed to films and video games like Guardians of the Galaxy, Age of Empires and Minecraft Earth.

The exhibition hopes to inspire the next generation of concept artists by taking visitors on a journey through Atomhawk’s process of creating rich and dynamic worlds. Atomhawk’s partnership with the GNM showcases creativity happening at a local level and brings home a powerful message that imagination and creativity can take you anywhere.

Starting with a collection of sketches, the exhibition demonstrates how Atomhawk’s artists draw inspiration from the world around them, be that from history, culture or people. We present the detailed layers of characters, props, and environments, showing how they come together to create the myriad worlds we see in today’s popular culture.

Atomhawk artists talking about what inspires them and immersive large scale reproductions of their creations help visitors appreciate the skill and imagination that goes into the final work produced.

We also created a series of interactives, resources, and photo opportunities so visitors can get hands-on with the exhibition and create their own worlds and stories.

Image credits Idene Roozbayani

The exhibition was conceived and created from scratch. Starting with a scale SketchUp model to give us an interactive foundation for the gallery space, we designed custom displays to vary the presentation and flow of the exhibition. We also worked with some fantastic suppliers who helped us bring a sense of drama to the space through, scale, texture, lighting, and audio-visual.

The graphic styling of the show and marketing comms takes inspiration from the typography and graphics typical of 1970s science fiction. Think Arthur C. Clarke, Issac Asimov, J G Ballard. This went hand-in-hand with the post-apocalyptic ‘Realm’ illustration used as the exhibition’s lead image.

Other Worlds: The Art of Atomhawkis part of the museums’ Other World/Ancient Worlds season. You can read more about our work for Ancient Iraq: new discoveries here

—

The exhibition opened at the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle on March 6, though due to current circumstances it is temporarily closed. We hope the museum will be open again soon and visitors can enjoy the show once again. 

Related bites