LIVE BRIEF: Fairy Trail

BRIEF

Client: 

Gaynor Gray (artist and owner of Gray Finch, www.grayfinch.co.uk) and Blow Your Horn Ripon (a community-run project committed to making the small, historic City a more creative and commercially thriving location).

Project: 

A fairy trail around Ripon's businesses and shops. There will be 10 fairies hidden across a selection of Ripon shops (from the 60+ businesses who have signed up to be involved and promote the project, including cafes, shops and restaurants) over the 4 Saturdays leading up to Christmas. The trail will invite people to visit the businesses each Saturday and actively 'hunt' for the fairies. The first person to find each fairy will win a prize.

Brief: 

I have been asked to produce 10 different fairies. They should be my smaller scale fairies (around 4 inches) so that they can be hidden in the many different participating businesses. 

Deadline: 

December 2017

Audience: 

Families and children. Locals and visitors to Ripon.

Rationale: 

I have quite a few reasons why this project is relevant and important to me, which means that it should produce work for my portfolio that I am serious about and would generate discussion in interviews. 

This is a project that is very local to me. The trail will bring families and children into the shops to look for the fairies each week so this will benefit the local economy, especially small and lesser known local businesses. I care a lot about my home town and think that these community run projects are very important. Gaynor Gray's latest project was a Pumpkin Trail around Ripon shops which brought lots of visitors into the city and the shops.

I'm also passionate about making Ripon more CREATIVE. It's so appealing to see artwork around.

The timescale for this brief is quite short and close so it won't take up too much of my time or attention. 

The theme of the trail is relevant to my interests in fantasy and fairy tales so I will be making work that interests me.

There will be a lot of promotion around this event. Gaynor is producing leaflets, posters, maps and stickers for the windows of the shops. We will be contacting the local newspaper and radio station. I know that 'local' is quite exclusive and limited in terms of audience but Ripon is becoming a hub for these unique events and people do travel to our little City participate. It could become an annual event. I enjoy the charm of this being a small and close-knit project.