Back in February 2020 an inquiry came in from David Sudlow Designers who were working with the Museum of Oxford on a full redesign of the museum and its permanent galleries. The museum was unable to remain open due to Covid restrictions and so they wanted to do something special to welcome visitors back for the reopening.
The team decided that a series of diverse, noteworthy character illustrations of historical figures
from Oxford’s past would be a great addition to the exhibition design. However, there would be
one big requirement, the characters would need to be created life-size to have the desired
impact. From looking at Emma Kelly’s portfolio the team knew that she would be a great
candidate for the task at hand. It didn’t take Emma long to accept the commission and begin
working with the team on creating a total of nine, full body, portrait illustrations. The portraits
(which include the patron saint of Oxford and William Morris) would need to be drawn at full scale
to make sure that the line thickness from Emma’s pen would be present and uniform across each
of the deliverables.
St Frid Emma Kelly
Emma maintained continuous communication with David Sudlow Designers which led to the
results that can be seen here.
Although, just when we thought that the job had been wrapped up there was another request
which would push Emma further again. The team felt that an Alice in Wonderland themed
zoetrope could be a wonderful addition to the exhibition. After a little research, Emma began
work on a series of sixteen images that when placed in quick rotation would give the impression
of Alice both growing and shrinking.
The museum reopened in October this year with Emma’s illustrations standing proud, ready to
greet visitors. What’s more is that Emma’s work will become part of the permanent exhibition at
the museum, something which only few achieve and is a tick off the commission bucket list.
