Merchants’ Academy

Merchants’ Academy

The Academy is a distinctive, specialised and extremely flexible learning village. We worked with pupils, staff and the school’s governors to determine the brief for the inclusion of artwork throughout the project. 

  • Merchants’ Academy 1
  • Merchants’ Academy 2

Tod Hanson has drawn inspiration from a growing, fast-paced world filled with technology. His colourful murals play with popular graphic imagery at a large scale and include comics, computer games, fantasia and technology. They are present both internally and along significant portions off the buildings’ facades and have become a symbol for the school and its many endeavours.

  • Merchants’ Academy 1
  • Merchants’ Academy 2
The emblems were chosen from Merchant Venturer and Bristol coats of arms. I chose to use Heraldry because it is pictorial and a little spooky. I wanted to add a fairy tale aspect to the school, like entering a kind of Gothic realm rather than a modern institution. By taking elements, enlarging them and spinning them on their head I was playing with the weighty history of Heraldry, to make an image that was a declaration, a fanfare for new possibility. The scale and cropping also adds an abstract graffiti-like aspect; an urban feel in a suburban context. Tod Hanson, Artist
  • Merchants’ Academy 1
  • Merchants’ Academy 2
Master Project
Merchants’ Academy
Client
  • Merchants’ Academy Trust
Status
Complete