Large-Format Composite Posters for Cefyn Coed Dementia Unit

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Large-format, image composites for Cefyn Coed Dementia Unit in Swansea

Art in Site and Alison Moger

Working with Art in Site and a commissioned local artist, Alison Moger, we worked on a series of large-format artworks to be displayed throughout the Cefyn Coed Dementia Unit.

Drawing on traditional domestic textile design, Alison produced over 50 pieces of embroidery, with illustrations of life from the surrounding countryside, in Swansea. As this was such a time consuming and enormous undertaking, local volunteers from the Embroidery Guild lent a helping hand with producing the full batch of textiles.

Normally we take photographs and stitch them together, but this time all the stitching was done for us!

Scanning and cleaning

Now we can’t claim to be embroidery specialists, but we can take these artistic creations, the size of a small envelope and scan the fabrics at a very high resolution. We use these high res scans to produce very large wall art.

Scanning delicate fabric is not easy. First, you have to make sure it is straight and there are no folds or twist. You also have to keep any shadows to a minimum. The design team wanted ‘some’ natural movement in the final image, but only the right amount. Our job was to deliver it perfectly.

The pieces had to be extremely clean, as once enlarged every mark would stand out. Dirt and dust was not allowed – only natural fibres. We meticulously cleaned all this out.

Composing the images

Because of the 3D nature of the fabric, we had to scan sections of some of the images. This was due to shadow areas on some images. We photographed the image areas we needed and then composed it into the other scan.

Matching the fabric weave shape was a labour of love. A lot of time and skill was taken, not only to capture the required area on the camera with the correct lighting angles but also to compose and merge the photographed section with the scan. Both pieces had to have similar sharpening, so there was a perfect montage.

The result was seamless.

Windows and doors

As well as wall art, Alison also produced some natural leaf designs in a variety of shapes, colours and textures also for large-format printing. Art in Site integrated these across the features within the ward, such as windows and doors. We scanned them as high res, colour corrected and profiled them to be output on fire-rated self-adhesive vinyl.

Impact

According to the Art in Site website, following the project completion, an internal evaluation at Ysbryd y Coed, Cefn Coed Hospital, Swansea found 30% fewer drugs were administered and were patients sleeping better. We love having been a part of this.

You can see more of our work with Art in Site, on our multiple composites pages.