Surface Impression

Since 2001, Surface Impression has been helping non-profit, community, cultural heritage and public-sector organizations to make the most of digital media.

Spotlight on museums and galleries

Museums have so much to offer the world, but sometimes struggle to connect to audiences. Find out how we’ve been helping museums make the most of digital for over 20 years…

Celebrating 20 years of great clients and projects

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20@20 - to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

##### Arts Etobicoke ####
@artsetobicoke

Arts Etobicoke is an incredible LASO (local arts service organisation) that promotes a highly varied and very engaging programme of arts and culture activities in the large Etobicoke region of West Toronto. Surface Impression has been working with Arts Etobicoke since 2018 through a series of digital initiatives, including the full redevelopment of their website (https://www.artsetobicoke.com). The longest term project is a five year digital strategy initiative, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, to develop methods and programmes to capture, analyze and utilize arts engagement data for the region. Arts Etobicoke also took part in our DART (Digital Action Research and Training) programme, resulting in a web shop to promote sales of work by a group of talented artists. The impact of the first Covid-19 lockdown resulted in a 3D online gallery and “curate your own exhibition” feature that has found many opportunities to be reused. Our collaboration with Arts Etobicoke continues to produce fantastic ideas, initiatives and outcomes.

#20at20 #etobicoke #artsandculture #webdevelopment

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#### Culture24 #####
@culture24

20@20 - To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

Culture24 is a small and dynamic team of writers, thinkers, producers and publishers who love arts and culture, understand digital and believe that cultural organisations have a vital place in a better world.

Surface Impression has been collaborating with Culture24 on a variety of fascinating projects that have helped to engage audiences with museums and culture as well as develop the digital skills of cultural sector professionals. Initiatives include the award-winning magazine-format site Museum Crush, the after hours festival Museums at Night and another award-winning venture - the fun (and sneakily educational) art platform VanGoYourself. Sector development has included the decade-long programme Let’s Get Real, and digital literacy initiative One-by-One, not to mention our own training programme DART (Digital Action Research & Training) that C24 have been instrumental in delivering. The list is too long to fit into one post!

Find out more at https://weareculture24.org.uk

#20at20 #webdevelopment #artsandculture

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#### Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups ####

20@20 - To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

Surface Impression has been working with the NHS (Britain’s National Health Service) in Sussex since the days of the primary care trusts in the early 2000s. Starting with a website for the West Sussex PCT, we’ve been there to help re-invent their digital presence through multiple reorganizations, mergers and initiatives.

A major part of this work has been to create an “extranet” to bring together resources and information for the many clinical practitioners, support staff and others that work so hard to bring healthcare to the region, free at the point of use. This includes a comprehensive bank of clinical guides and a “who’s who” searchable staff directory that keeps everybody connected. We’re currently working on an initiative to make training events and resources available through a digital hub.

www.sussexccgs.nhs.uk
www.westsussexccg.nhs.uk
https://lnkd.in/g3b5aY5
www.eastsussexccg.nhs.uk

#webdevelopment #healthcare #nhsuk #20at20

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#### Outside In ####
@outsidein_uk

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

Founded in 2006, the amazing and proactive organization Outside In provides a platform for artists who face significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation.

Surface Impression has been working with Outside In for 13 years, working with their team, and many participating artists, to take the website through many iterations. This process has always been user-led, with many opportunities to shape Outside In’s platform taken up by those that take part in the online galleries, physical exhibitions, training, research and other initiatives. Lately we have been experimenting with 3D virtual gallery exhibitions as a place to bring participants work together during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Starting life as a project at Pallant House Gallery, Outside In is now an independent charity. It has made a big difference to many many people, providing amazing outlets to showcase their creativity, building their confidence and connecting them with audiences.

www.outsidein.org.uk

#webdevelopment #disabilityarts #artsandculture #20at20

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#### SS-Shieldhall ####
@steamship_shieldhall

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

Steamship Shieldhall is the largest working steamship in Britain. A member of the National Historic Fleet she serves as a sea going tribute to Britain’s maritime heritage. Painstakingly restored and maintained by dedicated volunteers, SS Shieldhall sails from Southampton, providing unique cruises, events and other experiences.

Surface Impression has been working with the Shieldhall team for seven years, recently launching our second major iteration of their website and bookings system. This includes facilities for group bookings, third party sales, passenger manifests and encouragement for Shieldhall enthusiasts to become members and donated to the project.

https://ss-shieldhall.co.uk

#20at20 #culturalheritage #steamship #maritmeheritage

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#### Collections Trust ####
Collections Trust

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

The Collections Trust is a UK-based charity that helps museums capture and share the information that gives their objects meaning. Their standards and advice are used around the world to make museum collections accessible. Surface Impression was first engaged by the Trust in 2016 to reinvigorate what had become a tired and unmanageable website. We radically revised the design, placing the object as an integral part of the layout and content, and worked hard to make easily discoverable the plethora of essential resources that the Collections Trust publishes.

Central to the work of the Trust is Spectrum – the collection management standard that is also used around the world. To further this international reach, we have been working with the Trust and international partners (including Canadian Heritage, the British Council, Norwegian Arts Council [Kulturrådet], Swedish National Heritage Board) to create a publishing system for Spectrum in multiple languages. It is now available in French, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, and soon Arabic. As well as being clearly set out, easy to search, fully cross-referenced interactive documentation, Spectrum is integrated with a print on demand system so museum professionals can order printed versions.

In addition to Spectrum, we have helped the Trust bring other valuable resources to their constituencies, including specialist terminologies, museum accreditation, resources, news and events, alongside the presentation of specialist datasets such as MDA codes - four letter codes representing UK museums, a buyers guide to collections management systems and spoliation records – a directory of art of uncertain provenance that may have been looted during WWII.

https://collectionstrust.org.uk

#20at20 #webdevelopment #culturalheritage #museums

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20@20 - to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

##### Chisato Minamimura #####
@chisatominamimura

At Surface Impression, we also enjoy working with individual artists. This work often ends up being more of a creative collaboration, with a free flow of ideas and approaches between the client and our creative team.

One artist who has been a longstanding friend of our agency is Chisato Minamimura. Chisato is a Deaf choreographer and performance artist, originally from Japan, but now living in London, UK. She tours internationally, and works independently and with performance art, dance and other arts organisations. Chisato also provides art gallery tours in British Sign Language for institutions such as the British Museum, the National Gallery and the Tate galleries in London.

We recently redesigned and relaunched Chisato’s website, including a featured new work – Scored in Silence – her performance that explores the experiences of Deaf people in Japan following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Previously we collaborated on Minamimura, an Arts Council England funded project to develop an app showcasing her unique work – and working processes – in the field of choreography. As a Deaf artist, Chisato has a unique approach to choreography – creating what she calls “visual sound/music”. The app features a visual guide of her innovative system of dance scores, a full production of her dance piece “Box”, a step-by-step guide to the creative process and the thoughts of the dancers and Chisato herself.

chisatominamimura.com

#dance #disabilityarts #webdesign #webdevelopment #artsandculture #scoredinsilence

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20@20 - to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

#### UK German Connection #####

UK-German Connection is a bilateral government initiative for school and youth links. UKGC was set up 15 years ago by the UK and German governments, British Council and the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst. They exist to bring young people in Germany and the UK together, providing information and advice, a linking service and a range of bilateral programmes, trips and seminars. Networks and virtual activities also facilitate the active involvement of young people in the development of UK-German youth relations.

Surface Impression has been working with UKGC throughout the full 15 years – we created their first website and have taken it through many iterations since then. The site is divided into three main parts – The Voyage, a hub for young people, Voyage Kids – a learning resource for primary aged children and Professionals & Parents – a centre for grown ups to access funding, partnership opportunities, advice, resources and more. A fourth section, Applications, manages all the submissions for funding, trips and other initiatives.

https://ukgermanconnection.org

#webdevelopment #educationandschools #20at20

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20@20: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects. #20at20

#### Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove ####

Just a few hundred metres from our office in Brighton, the Royal Pavilion is one of Brighton’s prime attractions – a pleasure palace, built by Britain’s Prince Regent (later King George iV) in the late Eighteenth Century, it mimics Indian Mughal architecture on the outside and is stuffed full of ornate chinoiserie on the inside. The Royal Pavilion, and four of Brighton’s best cultural venues – Brighton Museum, Hove Museum, Preston Manor and the Booth Museum of Natural History are managed by the Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust – which recently became independent from the city council.

Surface Impression has been working with the museums service for over a decade. We were responsible for the redevelopment of their main website – brightonmuseums.org.uk – but also have undertaken several research and development projects bringing together digital and audiences. These include two apps, one of which, Story Drop, explored location, gamification and storytelling.

Within the gallery spaces of Brighton Museum we’ve also helped to thread digital experiences into the displays. One such project was a kiosk plus projection-based quiz engine to help engage visitors to the Spotlight Gallery’s ever-changing exhibitions. Another was a major redesign of the museum’s ethnographic gallery – resulting in World Stories Young Voices, a redisplay that was co-curated with the city’s young people. For that we produced films, mobile experiences and an interactive kiosk in collaboration with the museum team, third party suppliers and the museums access advisory group – ensuring that accessibility was baked in to the work right from the outset.

#museums #culturalheritage #webdevelopment #interactiveinstallation

Open

20@20 - To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Surface Impression, we’re showcasing 20 of our wonderful clients and their projects.

### The Darwin Correspondence Project ### @MyDearDarwin

Based at the University of Cambridge Library, the Darwin Correspondence Project (DCP) locates and researches letters written by and to Charles Darwin (1809–1882), and publishes complete transcripts together with interpretation and educational resources.

We worked with the DCP to redesign and relaunch their website in 2017, including integration of thousands of letters from their XTF database. Since then, we’ve instituted a data-driven continual improvement process that has helped to double traffic and broaden the audience year after year. We have also released a series of interactives and features, timed to coincide with Darwin’s birthday every February 12. They include a timeline, interactive maps, an exploration of Darwin’s study and gardens at Down House and most recently a 3D interactive explorer of HMS Beagle, the ship that took Darwin on his voyages of discovery.

https://darwinproject.ac.uk

Our clients

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We really liked Surface Impression from the first reading of your application where you paid such attention to detail, as well as your creativity. And then in interview, with your fantastic presentation, we knew we’d found our designer.
Thanks so much for honouring our wishes to ensure the exhibition online looks like the Journey to Justice exhibition and for including all we wanted, for your patience and for training our volunteers. We have a lot to be grateful for.
Carrie Supple, Director, Journey to Justice

Spotlight on museums and galleries

Celebrating 20 years of great clients and projects

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