Due to COVID-19, we have temporarily suspended aspects of our Art and Design Programme for the wellbeing of patients and staff. However, we continue to work with new artists remotely to develop exciting upcoming projects. In the meantime, we hope that our existing interventions at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and at West Middlesex University Hospital continue to promote healing and positivity for patients and staff during these unprecedented times.
We are very excited to be working with London based illustrator and designer Sarah Lewis, creator of her graphic design brand Alphablots. Sarah has designed a series of fun and colourful prints for the Neurophysiology department at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital which we have commissioned as part of our Art and Design Programme.
Alphablots combines a love of letterforms with a commitment to bringing colour and fun to the formal constraints of typography, by creating colourful designs for both adults and children. Sarah developed her style whilst screen-printing, working with overprints and intersecting shapes with just three trusty pots of ink – cyan, magenta and yellow.
It was this clever and creative use of colour that drew our Arts Team and the Neurophysiology department staff to Alphablots for the artwork commission.
Neurology is the branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves and muscles. Within Neurology stems Neurophysiology, which uses innovative procedures to record and interpret electrical signals from the nervous system, to diagnose and assess a range of nervous system disorders, including epilepsy, movement disorders, sleep disorders, headaches and facial pain.
The Neurophysiology department sees a large number of young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as motor impairments and cognitive deficits are often linked to Autism and Neurology. It was important that artwork within the department was developed with this audience in mind.
“It’s not often that you get a brief to make a clinical space more playful and engaging. I really enjoyed working with CW+, particularly because the team there had done so much research. They knew exactly what we were trying to achieve in the space and it made my job much easier. I’m so glad my work will have a positive impact on the families that use the service. I hope the kids enjoy them as much as I did creating them.” – Sarah Lewis, Alphablots
Following consultation with patients, relatives and staff, four key themes were established:
Animals | Space | Superheroes | Cartoon characters
With these themes in mind, Sarah designed three onomatopoeic words as individual letter prints of various sizes. These will be installed in the main corridor of the Neurophysiology department and the two treatment rooms within. When shown the print designs, the Neurology and Neurophysiology team were delighted with the outcome and excited to see the new artwork in situ.
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