Full of Spice festival

Bringing the flavour… Three real-world data visualizations to inspire visitors at Kew Gardens’ ‘Full of Spice’ festival.
Client

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Project TypeInstallations
A wide shot showing colourful illustrations and facts about different spices, stuck onto glass panes in the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew Gardens.

For their ‘Full of Spice’ festival, Kew Gardens asked us to create a physical installation that told sense-tingling stories in a spicy showcase.

We’re always putting ourselves in our audiences’ shoes. But this time we literally had to walk in their footsteps. To understand the architecture, paths and desire lines in Kew Gardens, we explored how visitors might move between our visualizations, step by step.

The installations needed to be weatherproof, made from ecological materials and durable to last a full summer. So we tested everything from how well our illustrations printed on wood to how well vinyl stickers adhered to greenhouse glass.

You couldn’t miss the five two-metre tall monoliths near the main entrance of Kew. Covered in beautiful illustrations, they told a witty and warm story of how different spices came to the UK.

Meanwhile, our Spice of Life visuals outside the Princess of Wales Conservatory compared the supposed health benefits of spices against evidence-based data. And our final piece, ‘Spice Invaders’, revealed how spices have changed the culinary and cultural worlds.

The experience brought a taste of excitement to the gardens at Kew and proved so popular that the installation was extended by three months.

A photo of two people looking at colourful spice of life bubbles placed on glass panes inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory.
A close up of some colourful illustrations and facts about different spices, stuck onto glass panes in the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew Gardens.
A photo of three wooden monoliths showing the origin of spices map as they were displayed outdoors at Kew Gardens.
A close up of one of the wooden origin of spices monoliths. It shows the pieces of coloured thread that were used to connect spices to their origins all over the map.
A world map split across five vertical tiles showing the origin of different spices around the world.
A series of colourful illistrations of anthropomorphised spices turned into characters.
An illustrated timeline of the history of diffierent spices.
A close up of an illustrated timeline of the history of spices. It shows two pieces of cardamon along with text that reads: 'The Greeks and Romans chewed cardamon to sweeten breath and it's still used in some chewing gums today.''
A close up of an illustrated timeline of the history of spices.
An illustrated timeline of the history of spices displayed on the wall of an outdoors structure in Kew Gardens.

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