Creswell Crags
Hyena skull
Creswell Crags
Hyena skull
Featured project
The client wanted to create a gallery that could present important finds in a clear and engaging way, while helping visitors understand the wider story of Ice Age life and the significance of the caves.
Working within a compact 120m² space, our role was to translate the brief into an immersive environment that balanced interpretation and display of sensitive artefacts. A series of large display cases form the core of the exhibition, presenting key objects within an accessible layout.
Interpretive graphics and AV elements surround the cases, providing context and helping to tell the story of Britian’s ice-age landscape, its inhabitants and the archaeological discoveries made at the site. The design allows visitors to engage with both the objects and the wider narrative of pre-historic life.
Following the initial installation, we developed an additional interactive exhibition space, introducing hands-on archaeological elements that encourage exploration and learning. This extension enhanced the visitor experience, particularly for families and school groups, adding a more participatory dimension to the gallery.
The ‘Home of Our Ice Age Ancestors’ gallery combines artefacts, graphics and film to tell the story of life at Creswell Crags. As well as the human artefacts, we displayed evidence of hippos, hyenas (above) and other species now only found in Africa. A six-minute animation put these objects into context and brings the prehistoric landscape to life.
The exhibition identity is expressed through strong wall graphics, creating an immediate visual impact and sense of place.
Aimed at the many school groups that visit Creswell Craggs, this interactive introduced the concept of going back in time as you dig down. A large wall display shows strata of different materials along with examples of artefacts. At the bottom, visitors can uncover their own finds in the dig interactive. Sweeping away plastic chips to find fossils, bones and ceramics. On the adjacent worktop you can examine and interpret artefacts using magnifiers and a microscope.
Each summer for four years we designed and produced exhibitions for the temporary exhibition gallery at Creswell. Each subject complemented the pre-historic themes at Creswell and we were able to combine beautiful close-up photography and dramatic story telling to illustrate the theatre of archaeological discovery.
Temporary Exhibitions:
The Swimming Reindeer, A Baltic Gem Excavations, The Bolsover Dragonfly
We designed and implemented a bespoke mobile app designed to guide visitors around the site’s walking trails. It combed mapped routes, interpretation and storytelling to enhance exploration of the landscape.
- Ian Wall, Director, Creswell Heritage Trust
