About Watford Big Bunting
In Spring 2021 we launched Good Will Bunting, a community arts project which asked the crafty so and sos of Watford to design a flag reflecting on their experiences over the past year. And the crafty so and so’s of Watford delivered.
We were inundated with a flurry of fantastic flags of various styles and designs from children, grown-ups, schools and community groups in Watford and beyond. A tremendous success, we turned these flags into beautiful bunting and used this to decorate our Imagine Watford sites.
But we noticed a common theme in many of the flags; the importance and celebration of green spaces. From this we devised, developed and delivered a brand-new bunting related project entitled The Fabric of Watford.
For this, we again asked the crafty so and sos of Watford, as well as the fabulous festival goers of Imagine Watford to create a flag which showed what Watford’s green spaces mean to them. Front gardens, back gardens, playgrounds, forests, Cassiobury park, Garston Park, Watford Fields…Hundreds of flags were created and so we covered our Stage in the Park site with boundless, batches of brilliant bunting.
The bunting from both of these projects have weathered wind, rain, blazing sunshine and chilly evenings but it is now safe and sound in our brand new digital space.
Credits
Project Created by
Digital Artist: Matt Powell - www.matt-powell.co.uk
Drawings: AD Dada
Design Assistant: Rachel Coleman
Further thanks to The Garfield Weston Foundation, Arts Council England, Watford Borough Council, The Imagine Watford Team, The Stage in the Park Team, The Take Part Team and, of course, you; our wonderful community.
Special thanks to Mark Jones, our Head of Wardrobe, who came up with the original idea for a bunting project. He has sewn together every single flag and worked tirelessly, putting up and folding bunting at our summer events.
The Making of Watford Big Bunting
It was a real honour to be digitising these two beautiful community projects. I was so inspired by the amazing creativity displayed across the flags that I wanted to create something myself! In early meetings, we discussed the idea of an interactive map collecting the places, parks and objects together. I initially started building this in Photoshop, however I then decided to make the map physically with a variety of craft styles.
Around the centre are the six park landmasses taken from ariel photos via Google Maps. The outside is surrounded by flags, textures and materials representing various symbols & objects depicted in the flags. The inside is packed with beautiful drawings by AD Dada of the brilliant buildings and companies that contributed into the project. This was then digitised by creating each section as an individual layer, adding pins into each section for clear navigation points.
I'm so proud to have been part of this project which unites hundreds of people's creativity together after such a long time apart. I hope you enjoy exploring the map & collection!
Matt Powell - Digital Artist
Artwork
Art gallery of AD's art
Video Tour
Explore every piece of bunting on display at Watford Palace Theatre for World Heritage Day
