News: Hospital donation helps celebrate record start to 2008

Apollo Creative has donated a state of the art bubble tube to the Harrogate and District Hospital Paediatric Ward.

The bubble tube has been donated to the twenty one bed Woodlands Paediatric Ward for children ranging in age from newborn to sixteen years old.

The bubble tube is an interesting and stimulating feature which creates stunning visual effects through the slow release of bubbles, which change through a myriad of colours.

Developed using the latest in LED technology to create stronger colour intensity, the bubble tubes are used extensively within the sensory market; providing stimulation and interest to seriously ill and disabled children and adults. Recently they have grown in prominence as a contemporary interior design feature within hotel lobbies, restaurants, bars, reception/waiting areas and homes. This growth has seen record sales during the first quarter of 2008, resulting in this special donation.

Hospital Play Specialist for the Woodlands Paediatric Ward, Anne Riach said – “The bubble tube is amazing. It is bright and stimulating and will provide a wonderful distraction for children on the ward.”

Mark Hildred, Creative Director for Apollo Creative said – “I am pleased to be able help create a more relaxing environment within the children’s ward by the donation of this tube. This seemed to be the perfect way to celebrate a record start to 2008, with sales of bubble tubes up over 100%!”

Whilst taking photos of children enjoying the new bubble tube, nurses on the ward commented on how well the bubble tube had been received by both children and parents alike.  One nurse said that the bubble tube provided vital relaxation for parents at what can be a very worrying time for them.  They thanked us for our kind generosity and also wanted us to know that it was a treat for them too!

Apollo Creative designs and manufactures a selection of specialist sensory display products including fibre optics, bubble walls, tubes and domes. It supplies a range of distributors across the UK.  The company also engages in a number of specialist projects across areas including arts, museum installations and education.

Harrogate Hospital

A nice part of this work is when you get the occasional chance to give things away! I've just been to Harrogate Hospital to install a bubble tube in one of their Children's Wards. As the closest hospital to where we are based in seemed natural to see if they could make use of a tube. Hopefully it will bring some enjoyment and relaxation to the young people spending time there.

MRI - Working with video

Today was the latest session before the summer with the young people taking part in the Me, Myself and MRI project. The primary focus was on using video to capture a portrait of someone and the different methods we might use.

More on the project blog at: http://geodesicarts.blogspot.com/

The fountain is working!

Over the last couple of days I've been down in Bristol on what is probably my last trip to work on the Interactive Fountain at Luckwell Primary School. This has been a great project and involved working with the children at the school on the ideas and design of the fountain.



My job this time was to present the final, installed fountain to the children and show them what it could do. Obviously this involved lots of getting wet (in part due to a few impromptu thunderstorms) and some very loud shouting. I think my voice will need a few days to recover!

My thanks to everyone at the school for making me feel so welcome.

News: Apollo Design4Retail for Clarins

A custom bubble tube containing Clarins products

Interactive light, sound and bubble experts Apollo Creative have collaborated with retail design specialists Design4Retail to provide Clarins with an exclusive point of purchase (POP) display to help promote the launch of their HydraQuench skincare range in Selfridges' London store.

Design4Retail were instructed to communicate the benefits of Clarins’ new brand in a unique manner and approached Apollo to assist their Technical Designer to create a stunning promotional feature.

Four extra wide tubes were created and customised with ultra-bright blue LED illumination. These elegant bubble tubes were used to portray the idea of hydration and were specifically designed to allow for the suspension of the new product range within oxygenated water; creating a mesmerising and attractive focus for Selfridges’ customers.

Apollo’s skill and experience within this field have helped them develop a leading edge reputation for providing revolutionary new products into the marketplace. As well as providing a standard range of products (which include bubble tubes, walls, domes and fibre optic light sources), Apollo also support special projects and companies with unique/bespoke requirements.

More recently Apollo’s product have grown in prominence as contemporary interior design features and can be seen in hotel lobbies, restaurants, bars and homes; and current projects include interactive fountains, exhibition stand designs, light and sound rooms, multi-sensory environments, digital play areas and museum interactives.

Jon Vinall, Director at Design4Retail said – “Apollo Creative provided us with effective products and a co-operative project management service. Our own technical designer was able to work with the team at Apollo to ensure that our exact needs were taken on board. The bubble towers we purchased from Apollo were delivered on time, to spec; were highly effective and used in an unusual way to create a successful promotional launch.”

For further information, please contact Ben Johnson on 01423 798232 or e-mail sales@apollocreative.co.uk.

Sense of Place [Revisited II]

This afternoon I acted as Technical Director for the setting up and running of A Sense of Place. This interactive sound and light piece reflects a 2000 year link between two historic sites in the City of York.

A Sense of Place [Revisited II] is a re-working of the original piece which was presented in Bootham Bar for three months in 2005. This version has the emphasis on the audio composition, with visual cues provided by images from the original installation. It was presented in Bedern Hall, a 14th Century dining hall of the Vicars Choral of York Minster.



This performance was part of a sound tour of the city for a conference on 'Virtual Audio and Past Environments', organised by SpACE-Net.

Fountain update visit

I visited Bristol today to visit the workshops where the interactive fountain is being created for Luckwell School. The main structure is now in place and the day centred around testing and setting up some of the sensor systems.

I'm aiming to return to Bristol in a couple of weeks to work with the fountain onsite at the school.