Working closely with lead designer Shirley Lochhead of Tea and Type, 3d design specialist Stuart Smith-Gordon and the team at NatureScot, I developed content for a much-needed refresh of the visitor centre at St Cyrus NNR near Montrose. With beautiful sandy beaches and clifftop views, this place is always a joy to visit, and was a treat to work on. The new, improved centre re-opened in April 2025, and at time of writing I’m very much looking forward to a visit.
The site is exceptionally rich in biodiversity and we wanted the displays and content to reflect this. It can feel tricky to get the balance right between showcasing lots of different species versus sharing fewer and having more breathing space to tell their stories.
We worked with the client to prioritise examples within the text and graphics that would best communicate particular aspects of what makes the site special. For instance, Nottingham catchfly was featured in a section about the site’s unique microclimate – this plant mostly grows in places like Yorkshire, much further south.
Design elements, including an overhead mobile of marine species helped to convey the quantity of species in simple and effective ways, so the text didn’t have to.
In telling the human history of the site, we were lucky to have access to some high quality historic photography of the former salmon fishing station on site, of people at work, and even a massive fish that was caught on site. Mostly this was supplied by local community members, and I sourced some further images via scran.ac.uk. To reflect the inspirational nature of the landscape, I was keen to include a work of art by the artist James Morrison, who made many studies of St Cyrus. The client put us in touch with his son, and we also featured a quote of his within the welcome panel.
