A Drop of Hope, an exhibition displayed outside the Francis Crick Institute during the pandemic, has been awarded a D&AD Award. The awards are highly prestigious and recognise creative excellence in design and advertising.
The annual D&AD Awards identify the world’s best creative work and are judged by more than 400 global creative leaders, practitioners and innovators. The Crick’s exhibition received an award in the graphic design category.
A Drop of Hope has also been recognised by the World Health Organisation as an innovative example of engaging the public during COVID-19.
A collaboration with creative partner Poet in the City and design studio Nina Jua Klein Studios, A Drop of Hope featured 12 poems that captured the impact of the pandemic and the transformative contribution of science. The poems were displayed from May to September 2021 on colourful panels outside the COVID-19 vaccination centre hosted at the Crick.
Hana Dethlefsen, exhibitions manager at the Crick who led the project, says: “We’re delighted that Nina Jua Klein Studios is being recognised for their wonderful contribution to this project. They so elegantly executed a simple and powerful idea – to grow a rainbow on the outside of the vaccine centre alongside the growing participation in the national vaccine programme.
“The colourful and welcoming design was critical in helping us achieve our aim of making the vaccine centre welcoming to our local community.”
As part of the project, visitors to the vaccine centre were invited to fill out a postcard where they could reflect on the pandemic and note their thoughts and feelings about getting vaccinated. Volunteers, staff and people living in the local community surrounding the Crick were also invited to contribute through creative workshops and interviews.
The poets took inspiration from these postcards, workshops and interviews to write their poems.
Of the 12 poems, two were in Bengali and two in Somali, reflecting the ethnic diversity of the people who contributed to the project and the community in local Camden.
All of the poems and artist statements are available to read and listen to in full on our exhibition webpage, while the exhibition itself is being re-homed within the Crick.
