Over the summer, the Brunel Museum welcomed Hailey Elliott for a three-month internship. Hailey is an Illustration student at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, originally from Amarillo, Texas. With a passion for illustration and an ambition to illustrate her own children’s books one day, Hailey brought her creativity and skills to a very special project at the Museum.
Working with Gabriella, the Museum’s Learning and Engagement Producer, Hailey developed and designed a new self-guided trail for children, creating a character to help young visitors explore the Museum and discover its history: Isy the Mole.
From developing Isy’s character and illustrations to choosing stories and activities, designing the layout and testing the trail with children and their families, Hailey worked on the project throughout her internship.
Here, Hailey shares the story behind the creation of Isy the Mole and the Museum’s new children’s trail.
Creating Isy the Mole
Hello everyone, my name is Hailey Elliott! I worked with Gabriella this summer to develop and design a museum trail kids can use to guide themselves through the museum! When I first arrived, I learned more about the museum, the exhibits and Gabriella explained what she hoped for this project! I started brainstorming ideas right away and decided a character would help engage the kids. I spent many days designing the character and we landed on Isy the mole! He appears throughout the flyer, telling the kids about the museum and the history.
Next, we needed to decide what to include in the flyer and Gabriella pointed out the exhibits kids would enjoy the most. I took the information and wrote it in a way for kids to understand and included questions to help the kids explore and absorb the history.
After finalising the content, I tested out different ways to lay out the information on the page. After feedback, we landed on the layout used now. Throughout the process, the text and images were tweaked and adjusted so they ended up looking and reading as nice as possible.
A few kids and their guardians graciously agreed to test out the flyer and their feedback shaped many of the questions that ended up in the final design.
After much deliberation and reiterating, we ended up with the final product! It was a joy to work on and I hope you all enjoy it too! Thank you so much!
Discover the trail
Isy the Mole is now ready to welcome young visitors to the Brunel Museum. Pick up the children’s trail during your visit and follow Isy around the Museum to explore the story of the Thames Tunnel, discover objects and stories, and answer questions along the way.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Hailey for all her creativity and hard work during her internship, and to the children and families who helped test the trail and shared their feedback.