Student samples work experience at Apollo

This week we have had a student from a local school on work experience. A year 10 student from The Forest School, has been using his interest in art to help design a new company logo, product posters and graphics for the Apollo Ensemble software.

He produced some great paintings which we will be using with the Ensemble software as background images for two of our ready made themes, 'jungle' and 'under the sea'.

In between all his other jobs this week he managed to create a Christmas card for us, stay tuned for yours!

A triangular bubble wall?

Earlier this year we worked with a student from King James's School to help design a triangular bubble wall as a concept and also build a working prototype.

The product was designed to fit on a table top as a corporate showpiece. It includes the air pump and the lights in a small compartment and was seen as a smaller, more affordable bubble wall.

Various changes were made to the original design (top right) as issues were encountered, such as the removal of one triangle to save space, but the final product looks great. The movement of the air bubbles was interesting, something which we hadn't expected!

News: "All that matters..." is gardening!

The Malvern Spring Gardening Show opened today, with a Show Garden designed by Lindsay Warwick featuring Apollo Creative bubble tubes.

Lindsay is a graduate landscape designer who was shortlisted for the Chris Beardshaw Scholarship. 'Atom' is the theme for this years scholarship gardens, celebrating the UNESCO year of Chemistry. 'Chemistry ... all that matters' is Lindsay's interpretation of this theme, as she explains in her brief for the design:

"Chemistry ... all that matters showcases some of the elements we might associate with science. A blend of art and education, the garden pays tribute to the test tube rack and dusty chalk boards that were features of chemistry lessons for so many of us."

"An iconic atom sculpture stands adjacent to a circular pond. Rivers of meandering electrons flow, winding their way through space and weaving around the base of the test tube feature that bubbles proudly away at the back of the garden."

Lyndsay received an RHS Bronze Award for her efforts, as well as having a great deal of public interest in her design.

You can read about the preparation for the event on the Apollo Projects Blog.

Chemistry ... all that matters is complete!

The Malvern Spring Gardening Show opened today and we travelled down to have a look at Lindsay's finished garden. The results were great, with food dye the bubble tubes really turned into test tubes. Lindsay won a bronze medal from the Royal Horticultural Society and attracted a lot of attention from the public, especially after encouraging people to write their own messages on the reverse of the blackboards.

The show is on until Sunday, be sure to get down if you can.

Behind the scenes at Chemistry ... all that matters

We've just received a behind the scenes picture from Lindsay which shows the garden taking place with the 5 bubble tubes at the back. Food dye was put into the water in the tubes so that they have a brilliant colour, even outside in bright sunlight when LEDs wouldn't be very effective.

You can start to imagine them as test tubes already!

Behind the scenes: Test tubes for Chemistry ... all that matters

For Lindsay Warwick's show garden we've adapted our existing bubble tube design to allow them to be used outdoors. They now have more bubbles, and all 5 tubes run from a single pump!

The test tubes are taking shape!

Chemistry ... all that matters

We have been approached by Lindsay Warwick, a graduate landscape designer who, as part of being shortlisted for the Chris Beardshaw Scholarship, has been asked to design and build a show garden at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show 2011.

'Atom' is the theme for this years scholarship gardens, celebrating the UNESCO year of Chemistry, and 'Chemistry ... all that matters' will be Lindsay's show garden.

Chemistry ... all that matters showcases some of the elements we might associate with science. A blend of art and education, the garden pays tribute to the test tube rack and dusty chalk boards that were features of chemistry lessons for so many of us.

An iconic atom sculpture stands adjacent to a circular pond. Rivers of meandering electrons flow, winding their way through space and weaving around the base of the test tube feature that bubbles proudly away at the back of the garden.

We will be donating five bubble tubes which will resemble the test tubes at the back of the garden. We'll also post some interesting behind the scenes pictures as the garden takes shape.

The Malvern Spring Gardening Show takes place at The Showground in Malvern, just outside of Worcester, on 12-15th May 2011.