Museums, galleries & heritage
Marketing design for museums and galleries, made from the inside out.
I spent a decade designing in-house for the British Museum and Art Fund. I know how cultural marketing actually runs — the campaign sign-offs, the media deadlines, the budget that has to stretch across every channel.
Happy Hour Studio is an independent design studio making marketing materials for museums, galleries and heritage organisations: exhibition and campaign advertising, membership and fundraising, print, out-of-home, social, email and editorial. Based in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, working with London and UK-wide clients, and remotely worldwide.
Who it's for
Museums and galleries marketing an exhibition, season or prize, who need one idea that works from a poster to a paid social frame.
Heritage organisations running a campaign, appeal or anniversary that needs a coherent look across print, digital and out-of-home.
Membership, development and fundraising teams needing mailings, appeals, brochures and supporter print that get opened.
In-house marketing teams who need an extra pair of hands who already speaks the language of collections, credits and image rights.
What a project includes
01
The campaign idea
Time with the objects, the exhibition and the audience insight before any design happens, so the campaign is led by the material rather than a template.
02
Design and art direction
Typography, colour, illustration and image direction developed as one system that holds across posters, press ads, social, email and print.
03
Every format, sized properly
Out-of-home, tube and rail, press, banners, paid social, newsletters, leaflets and event print — all artworked from the same idea rather than squeezed into new shapes.
04
Production and handover
Artwork prepared to real media specs and printer requirements, with files, templates and guidelines your team can keep using.
Selected work
Campaign
The Wild Escape
Art Fund
A nationwide Art Fund campaign across museums and galleries.
Identity
Museum of the Year
Art Fund
Art Fund's flagship prize, from shortlist to ceremony.
Editorial
Remus
The British Museum
A magazine for young minds, made with the British Museum.
Event collateral
BM Trustees' Dinner
The British Museum
Event identity and print for the British Museum.
Common questions
- Do you work with in-house marketing teams?
- Often. Sometimes I lead a campaign end to end; sometimes I work inside an existing team's guidelines as extra capacity. Both are fine.
- Can you work to existing brand guidelines?
- Yes. Much of my museum work sits inside established institutional brands, and I'm used to designing with real constraints.
- Do you design exhibition graphics and interpretation?
- That isn't my specialism — I focus on the marketing and campaign side: advertising, print, social, membership and fundraising materials that get people through the door.
- Are you based in London?
- I'm in St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex and in London regularly for meetings and briefings.
- How far ahead should we get in touch?
- For exhibition campaigns, a few months is comfortable so media deadlines are met. Smaller print jobs can move much faster — ask and I'll tell you honestly.
Got an exhibition or campaign to market?
You don't need a finished brief or a fixed budget to get in touch. If something's on your mind, that's enough to start.