Shell posters express a special something

Students with special educational needs and disabilities have created a series of posters to be incorporated into the Shell Heritage exhibition at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum in the UK.

Pupils from the Oak Lodge School were invited to work on a collaborative project with the Shell Heritage Art Collection and the National Motor Museum Trust.

They were tasked with creating a contemporary poster inspired by the renowned Shell collection at Beaulieu.

Eight year 10 pupils visited the Shell exhibition to see the iconic posters in the National Motor Museum, find out about the artists involved and learn about the history of Shell advertising.

They looked closely at some of the vehicles on show, including the 1907 Gobron Brillié fire engine, 1901 Columbia Electric driven by Queen Alexandra and the wartime Willys Jeep.

Supported by school staff, they also sketched in the grounds of Beaulieu Abbey and the ancestral Montagu home of Palace House.

On their return to school, they used their sketches and photographs to develop ideas for work which will contribute to their GCSE art coursework.

Exploring a range of different media, they produced their final designs using print, textiles, painting and drawing.

The finished artworks were placed within the traditional Shell poster graphics, as pupils carefully considered the wording, style and colour of text to complete their posters.

One of the most important collections of 20^th century British commercial art, the Shell Heritage Art Collection includes advertising posters, original paintings, cartoons and press advertisements plus the ever-popular Shell County Guide books.

Posters and paintings from the collection have been continuously on show in the museum and are also loaned regularly to museums and galleries around Britain and Europe, allowing access to the collection to around a million people a year.

Its popularity is due in part to the high calibre of artists previously commissioned for Shell’s campaigns.

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The National Motor Museum Trust’s collection of vehicles is world-famous, along with its extensive motoring artefacts and archives of film footage, images, documents and books which are housed in the Collections Centre.

Stored alongside the 1.7 million items housed in the Collections Centre, the Shell Heritage Art Collection has been well cared for and has benefited from this strong heritage association.

For more information about the Shell Heritage Collection see here.