HMS Belfast - 80 year anniversary digital campaign

The Imperial War Museum wanted help to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the warship, HMS Belfast. As one of the longest serving ships in British naval history, The Belfast has borne witness to many of the most significant conflicts of the 20th century.

Despite her illustrious maritime battle service, The Belfast was so much more than an instrument of war. She has served as a loving (if not cramped) home to a special fraternity of crew, survived attempts of scrappage before being reborn and becoming a conduit of modern history to visitors of London.

I wanted the digital celebration to reflect all these aspects of the ship, and those who sailed in her!

Research

As I delved into the ship’s backstory, (including an onsite trip to the HMS Belfast at London Bridge) I began to research each definitive era of the ships life and categorised them to establish a timeline and the ‘flow of content’ the site would offer.

With the framework in place to craft an intuitive and original way for visitors to navigate the life of The Belfast.

I decided upon a carousel timeline as a nod to analogue slide projectors and for an intuitive user mechanic. Behind this, animated backgrounds would act as a window to the ship’s past voyages - from the beaches of Normandy to freezing Arctic waters and the tropics of The Pacific.

It was important for to make life aboard HMS Belfast tangible and immersive. One way this was achieved was to begin with a cinematic introduction weaving archive photography and emotive quotes from the crew.

I was inspired by the tales of the servicemen and the ‘human angle’ of recent history and wanted to reflect this and not to present the ship as merely a marriage of metal and engineering, inviting users to journey through the chapters that defined The Belfast.