Living Histories illustrations for Heads On / Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s charity
Heads On charity commissioned me to create a suite of illustrations for their ‘Living Histories’ podcasts. Living Histories shares the unheard oral histories of people who have used or worked in NHS mental health services in Sussex from the closure of the asylums in the 1980's, up to and including the Covid-19 pandemic.
Through a series of podcasts, created using clips from these oral histories, they explore the common themes threaded through these real-life stories. Living Histories was made possible with support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, NHS Charities Together and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
As well as creating an illustration for each podcast, I created additional promotional artworks and designed the exhibition panels for pop-up displays highlighting the project.
And, I hand-painted murals on a seafront shelter in Worthing to increase the visibility of their exhibition at that location (see below).
“Working with Dave has been a joy from start to finish. Heads On brought Dave on board to illustrate our Living Histories exhibition. His challenge was to visually represent the real-life stories shared by people who have used and / or worked in NHS mental health services in Sussex. Dave met this challenge head on, producing thoughtful, bold and beautiful designs that captured the essence of the audio exhibition and gave a visual hook for people to hold on to as they experienced the stories they were hearing.
Dave worked also with the Heads On team to create a purely visual exhibition for a seafront shelter signposting to online content. Later, Dave ran a co-production session to generate ideas for a mural to enhance the exterior exhibition which received many positive comments and boosted interaction with the exhibition content.
Dave was curious and enthusiastic about the content for the exhibition and this is reflected in the images he created. A professional through and through, Heads On enjoyed partnering with Dave on this piece of work and thank him for his commitment to the project. ”