Ashleigh Armitage

Ashleigh Armitage, Andrew Robinson and Mick Marston led the visual communication strategy for the Re:Mission Study—an NHS low-calorie diet programme—translating complex clinical research into accessible materials for both patients and healthcare professionals. Armitage led the translation of the clinical research into the narrative and design of the communication outputs. Collaborating closely with health researchers and a Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Group (PPIE), the project resulted in an animated patient journey film, a short explainer animation, and an illustrated summary document for practitioners. This interdisciplinary collaboration addressed a significant gap: prior to this intervention there was no central, accessible source of information about the NHS low-calorie diet programme. Through this work, complex clinical research was translated into formats accessible to both patients and healthcare professionals. Involving both researchers and patients in the development process helped produce materials that bridged the gap between clinical research and public understanding, responding directly to real-world needs. The project distilled 20,000 words of clinical research into engaging, easy-to-understand formats suitable for a broad, lay audience. Illustration, animation and narrative storytelling were used to communicate the patient journey and key findings of the study in a clear and accessible way, allowing complex medical information to be understood by a broad, lay audience. These materials are now embedded within NHS platforms, raising awareness of Type 2 diabetes remission strategies and encouraging behaviour change across the UK. The outputs have been distributed in GP surgeries and were presented at the Diabetes UK Conference in April 2024 to 2,000 delegates from academia, policy, and healthcare practice. The Re:Mission project has influenced national guidelines, reshaping how the NHS delivers Type 2 diabetes care. Ongoing qualitative research led by Louisa Ells will assess the long-term effects of these materials on healthcare practice and patient outcomes.

St. Chad’s Broomfield Cricket Club has served the local community of Headingley for over 140 years. The pavilion had fallen into significant disrepair and required substantial redesign to meet the current and future needs of the club. Armitage and Hamill, in collaboration with Architecture colleagues and undergraduate students, devised the interior and external supergraphics of a new pavilion for the club. The supergraphics take the form of large CNC-engraved plywood panels installed across the back wall of the pavilion’s central community space. This co-design project explored how live design projects in proximity to the institution can provide learning and professional practice opportunities. The collaborative process of design questioned the traditional demarcation between design practices (such as Architecture and Graphic Design) and the role of client, designer and student, ultimately advocating for a less hierarchical approach. The St Chad’s Pavilion project provides a model for collaborative and interdisciplinary ways of working within Higher Education that benefit local communities. The integration of design thinking across the disciplines resulted in an inclusive, non-hierarchical approach which has been extended to members of the local community. It has established a pedagogy which supports interdisciplinary and relational ways of working that can continue across Architecture and Graphic Design. Motivated by empowering a community to realise and manage the future of its assets, this co-design project enabled students to experience first-hand the significant contribution they can make, as designers, to the communities in which they live. This co-design project has been the catalyst to empower members of the local community and students. The pavilion functions as an important community space and is used by twenty senior and junior cricket teams, representing approximately 225 members and over 5,000+ attendees annually. It will continue the legacy of St. Chad’s Broomfield Cricket Club and its annual programme of cricket events. It also enables the club to commercialise the space for wider community events.

Things of the Least: Lively exhibition-making with children under 3 is an exhibition developed through a three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council project led by Manchester Metropolitan University in collaboration with Manchester Art Gallery, Birmingham City University and Sure Start. The project explores how the spatial, material and embodied ways that babies and toddlers encounter the world can inform new approaches to exhibition-making and gallery practice. Working with the Mary Greg Collection, an idiosyncratic group of domestic and childhood objects held by Manchester Art Gallery, the exhibition brings together artists’ works, films and collection objects alongside spatial structures that invite visitors to move, play and explore the space. Ashleigh Armitage worked as graphic and exhibition designer, shaping the visual language of the exhibition across spatial design, interpretation, research publication and marketing. Within this project, Armitage investigated how graphic design can organise and translate research across disciplines. Her design process mediated between artists, early-years researchers, curators and fabricators, shaping how visitors encounter the exhibition. Rather than relying on conventional labels and text panels, interpretation was translated into spatial and playful forms. Playful statements and research observations were embroidered into cushion labels, while the project narrative became a crawl-through graphic structure to be explored by children and read aloud by parents and adults. The design language drew on silhouettes and scaled fragments of objects from the Mary Greg Collection, allowing these forms to appear across wall graphics, printed materials and spatial elements. Combined with colour, materials and tactility, this approach helped create a deliberately discordant environment capable of engaging babies, families and adult visitors simultaneously. The exhibition opened at Manchester Art Gallery in October 2025 and was initially scheduled to run for one year before being extended by a further six months. Manchester Art Gallery receives approximately 650,000 visitors annually.