The Next Chapter Experience

As part of the creative team behind The Next Chapter, our work contributed to a story that reached over 120 milion people across national and regional media. The Next Chapter was an interactive legacy experience created by United by 2022 to celebrate the region’s community impact since the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and invite the public to imagine the future of the West Midlands. Installed at Birmingham New Street Station, the exhibition transformed data, interviews and lived experiences into an immersive journey visitors could step into and add their voice to.

Blunt & Brave led the creative direction and experience design, shaping the narrative, spatial journey, interactive moments and sensory storytelling throughout the space. With OPUS and Coral Colour we transformed more than 70 pages of data into a living, breathing storybook at the heart of the city.

As part of this, we designed all key interactive touchpoints of the exhibition. This included the dual "Digital Wishing Well" that invited visitors to share their hopes both physically and online, the tactile "Write Your Own Next Chapter" station for capturing personal reflections, and the "Echo Wood Radio" Listening Tree, featuring a four-episode audio series we produced with voices from volunteers and beneficiaries, now serving as lasting legacy content.

We shaped the full spatial and narrative flow through detailed storyboarding and curation of graphics and environmental details, ensuring every element worked together to create a coherent, community-led experience.