Case Study: Firing Line
The Organisation
Sitting within Cardiff Castle, Firing Line are a regimental museum that pride themselves on engaging storytelling though their exhibits and artefacts.
The Firing Line Museum of The Queen’s Dragoon Guards and The Royal Welsh, to give them their full name, are a valuable part of the experience of a visit to Cardiff Castle. Their museum appeals to a wide range of age groups (from school children upwards), along with a very large tourist footfall.
The Task
The museum has both fixed and temporary exhibitions; digital and traditional. The temporary exhibitions (shown in the images on this page) need to be bold, informative, and always feel fresh—while keeping within the museum’s brand guidelines.
We have been appointed to create these projects for the museum for several years now, and each one is a great opportunity to look at the project with fresh eyes each time.
The Challenge
We always need to have a clear understanding of the content of each temporary exhibition. We need to understand the story, the people involved, the artefacts, and the main goal/theme of the project. We then use the available space (carefully measured with the understanding of what will be in the cases) to draw the visitor to the exhibition.
We suggested to the museum that we create new panels to sit behind the whole of the display case (previously just a fabric panel), along with the usual timeline for every exhibition, and the main story panel.
When we made this change the case interior really joined up well, and more obviously, with the main story panels on the outside of the case. It made the artefacts feel more cohesive with the story and the information presented around them.
A significant challenge is the limited availability and often low quality of many of the very old images available due to both their age and their usually small size. We use various methods (creative and technical) to ensure these look good at larger sizes and touch up the image where necessary.
The Outcome
We’ve worked with Firing Line for over 4 years, leading to a close relationship and good understanding of the client. This helps ensure the various projects run as smoothly as possible. We also have a great relationship with the printers who supply and fit the panels, this also helps everything come together nicely.
Each new exhibition gets really positive feedback from the museum, and we keep managing to surprise.
Firing Line have now placed a much larger project with us that is currently ongoing. Watch this space…
See more of the work on our Firing Line portolio page.
“Thanks for the quick and fabulous work….painless as always”
Rachel Adams – Firing Line