It’s still Christmas for us even in February!

We were so busy moving just before Christmas that we didn't even have time to show off our new abode in Folkestone.

ARC House was originally a Tea Warehouse- dating back to the late 1800's.

Although our office in the Creative Quarter in Folkestone was great, we'd been there for over 6 years and had out-grown it.

We bought our new property (literally around the corner) last April in a very-rundown state of repair. It had been empty for years and needed gutting.

Carefully sneaking in many many hours between work and home life, we religiously steamed into repairing the roof, building walls and offices, a kitchen, galley and even a posh bathroom!

Our pride and joy was the installation of a massive wood burning stove! (We're all pyromaniacs at ARC).

Now all moved and settled we are loving our quirky office. We fight over who's going to light the fire. Our tools are now neatly located in our huge workshop.

It's given us all a new sparkle. A new dynamic. A new adventure.

Merry Christmas!

Extreme Interpretation in Anglesey 2013

Llandwyn island is an exposed peninsular that juts into the entrance of the Menai Strait. It is one of the most beautiful locations we have ever worked in but (as it turned out) it also proved to be one of the most challenging.

When ARC Creative and Nigel McDonald of 'No Nonsense Interpretation', teamed up to tender for this project, we were thrilled at the possibility of spending time on Llandwyn. As Nigel put it after the first visit, "We dream of working in places like this!"

At one point during the installation however, this dream could easily have become a nightmare. After much planning and design work, it was late autumn before were ready to install on Llandwyn. The Island is regularly cut off during high tides so with all our stuff, the only way was by Landrover. And just to make things better, on the first day it was pouring with rain and blowing a hooley!

Toposcope:
The toposcope panel is exposed to high winds, sea spray and windblown sand (as Chris found out!) so we had it made from enamelled lavastone.

Being made of stern stuff, we pressed on with the work, aided admirably by Graham Williams and his team who care for the island. But things started to unravel when Chris got wind blown sand in his eyes and had to take shelter to try to clear it. This was unsuccessful, the weather was getting worse and the tide was against us so we had to beat a retreat.

Welcome Panel:
Shortly after installation the welcome and orientation panel was already in use. (The shelter is there for those who forget to check the tide times!)

Fast forward to the evening and we were in Bangor hospital with Chris undergoing minor surgery to remove several particles of sand from his left eye. He had been in great pain unable to see and was told that had he left it overnight he would most likely have been in serious trouble and could even have lost his sight!

Undeterred, we were back on the island the following day and just managed to complete the work before the next high tide. As the pictures show, the weather was a little kinder to us.

The view back to the 'mainland' from Llandwyn after the storm.

We installed a number of interpretive items including a new welcome panel, a toposcope showing the view to Snowdonia and a smaller panel near to the ruined church on the island. This tells the story of Dwynwyn who is Wales' patron saint of lovers. We also installed several small partly hidden tactile plaques in various points to encourage visitors to explore the island further.

If you get a chance, do go and explore Llandwyn yourself. You won't regret it. The place is really stunning - whatever the weather.

ARC in 2012: brief update

As we rapidly approach the anniversary of our previous blog post it was felt a brief update was in order. The past twelve months have been very busy for ARC and here are a few sneak peek photos of just a couple of the projects we've completed.

The two images above are part of an installation at Riverside Park in Medway. We hope to have case studies of this, and other projects, on either the blog or the website in the near future.

This image shows possibly our favourite thing of the entire year. Just one element of a larger install, our working mini-cannons for Upnor Castle in Medway have been a massive hit with visitors and clients alike.

Ahh Vienna

Chris and Tom are on their travels!

They're travelling to Vienna, Austria tomorrow to take part in the UK Trade and Investment Conference, a table top exhibition for UK providers of museum design and interpretation services. The conference lasts until 1st December.

Silverware for ARC

Following on from our previous success achieving Blue Level accreditation with the STEM (Steps to Environmental Management) scheme, we are proud to report that we have now reached Silver Level accreditation.

ARC has done this by continuing to minimise the environmental impact it has through its daily business operations.  Using recycled materials, timber from sustainable sources and eco latex printing systems are but a small part of this approach.

In the words of Pete Tong, "we continue" !

On the job

With the updated website came a photoshoot on the beach here in Folkestone. Along with lots of sensible photos it was thought we could have a bit of fun…

In a hole!

This photo shows Chris building a flint cairn in preparation for a lava stone panel at Broomhill Park in Gillingham. It is the first of several projects we are doing for Medway Council, which also include a cast SG map sculpture of the River Thames.