The immersive design and visitor experience of the Hockney’s Eye exhibition powerfully engaged audiences and donations from the public increased 373%.
Taking place in Spring/Summer 2022, the Fitzwilliam Museum and Heong Gallery’s temporary exhibition was to be a journey into the artwork and mind of David Hockney. As the exhibition would be located across two sites in Cambridge, creating a joined-up journey through the galleries was key, especially as Hockney’s work was interspersed with permanent collections.
Holmes Studio’s bold design and spatial strategy created a fantastic flow through the exhibition. A palette of greens (inspired by one of Hockney’s jumpers) identified the artist’s work and signposted the spaces in an accessible way for all visitors, 70% of which rated wayfinding good or very good.
The design scope spanned all outputs from exhibition design, mapping and interactive interventions, to print, social media and digital for the marketing campaign. Incorporated into every element, the greens became a definite visual characteristic of the show and were also leveraged in the press where the show secured over 50 major pieces of coverage, and across social media, reaching more than 1.7million people.
By bringing to life and connecting the content across the multi-site gallery spaces and all touchpoints, the design helped Hockney’s Eye become the Heong Gallery’s most successful ever exhibition. It brought in 168% more visitors than previously and Fitzwilliam Museum secured 195% more memberships – almost double the number achieved throughout 2019.
