BSOA Graphic Design X Blick/BDW X Belfast Health and Social Care Trust RVH Site Visit

A few weeks ago we had an amazing behind the scenes tour of the Royal Victoria Hospital for a brand new Blick/ Belfast Design Week project exploring graphic design with Belfast School of Art students to highlight and enhance heritage at the Royal Victoria Hospital. Looking at way finding from the main modern lobby through to the Victorian corridor and heritage space, as well as enhancing current heritage displays and signage and enhancing visitor engagement with heritage, as well as exploring potential technological engagement with RVH heritage. This collaboration is part of a new Belfast Trust project called RVH 125 which marks the 125th anniversary of the opening of the hospital on the Grosvenor Road site in July 2028. Following this site visit the students are working on a body of work to be exhibited during Belfast Design Week 2027.

Some of the things we got up to last month at Blick!

Belfast Plant Map - The Places We Included

Here`s the places with (varying amounts of) nature we found in Belfast City Centre where you can pause, sit and enjoy a moment of nature and the benefits it brings to your wellbeing.

Belfast is in many ways a pretty green city, but there’s definitely room for improvement. We’ve got around 2,390 hectares of open space across the city, but it’s not spread evenly. Some inner-city areas have just 1–7% tree cover, while some outer areas have as much as 43–49%.

So, while Belfast is already green in places, there’s a real opportunity to bring more trees, plants and green space into the areas that need them most.

Which is your favourite place to take a break in nature in the City Centre and are there any we missed?

- City Quays Gardens
- Cathedral Gardens
- Writers Square
- Jubilee Square
- Titanic Memorial Garden and Garden of Remembrance, Belfast City Hall
- Oxford Street
- Lanyon and Donegal Quay
- Queen’s Quay and maritime mile
- Pocket Gardens Adelaide Street
- Bankmore Square
- Crescent Gardens
- Botanic Gardens
- Palm House and Tropical Ravine

Belfast Plant Map - The Plants We Included

The plants we included in the Belfast Plant Map are all plants we found within a 10 minute walk of our Hill St studios in Belfast`s Cathedral Quarter in the City Centre.

As this project is all about Belfast and its relationship with plants we wanted to look into some of the plants that you see growing naturally in Belfast (usually growing as weeds along the edge of streets, in car parks and fenced off areas). To explore the value some of them have the potential to offer both culturally through folklore and history and heritage as well as their benefits to biodiversity and as potential foodsources (if pollution wasn`t an issue).

We have included some interesting facts and stories we found about the plants and they have also been beautifully illustrated by Thomas Bannon @thomasbannondraws in the Plant Map.

Blick Virtual Office Space

Whether you are just starting out and can’t yet afford workspace or are happy to work from home but seeking a professional public image for your business. Our professional business address creates a confident and trusted first impression for your clients and keeps your home address private and separate from your business.

Monthly Business Address Service

We will redirect up to 15 items of regular and standard large letter-sized business mail to the address of your choice monthly for £22.50 a month or £200 a year

Weekly Business Address Service

We will redirect business mail to the address of your choice weekly. Up to 25 items of regular and standard large letter-sized mail per calendar month for £30 a month or £300 a year

You can find more info on our website (link below and in profile): https://blickstudios.org/virtual-services/

Workspace Available This Month!

About the workspace
We have two dedicated deskspaces available in our Cathedral Quarter studios this October
– One dedicated desk in our Cotton Court Studios shared creative coworking space at £130 per calendar month
– One dedicated desk in our Hill Street Studios hared creative coworking space at £165 per calendar month
– Prices are per calendar month all inclusive utilities, rates, broadand etc (No VAT)
– Cathedral Quarter locations
– Minimum 3 months contract then on a rolling monthly contract
– 1 months rent required as a deposit
– Email christine@blickstudios.org for more info or to arrange a viewing

Our latest roundup of funding and opportunities for NI Creatives.

01. The East Light Prototype: Designing Sustainable Residencies
Over the course of one year, the selected Producer will engage with NAARCA partners, learn how each institution operates, and receive support to establish a new sustainability-centred pilot residency programme on Rathlin Island.
Closing date: 19th October 5pm

02. Propositions for Design Beyond Growth
They invite designers, researchers, makers, repair practitioners, architects, economists, activists, policy makers and manufacturers and anyone curious about how design and degrowth intersect, to share tactics and strategies for moving design beyond growth-driven production and consumption, towards sufficient, durable, repairable and equitable material practices.
Closing date: 22nd October

03. No Harm in Waiting
The RSUA/JP Corry Design Competition for 2026 challenges Early Career Architects to propose creative ideas for a specific bus shelter that explores the potential of gender equity and inclusivity within public realm design.
Closing date: Sunday 11th October 11.59pm.

04. Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council Cultural Grant Aid and Bursary Programme
Are you an individual or a constituted group based in Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough with a cultural project or creative idea?

05. Groundwork NI Freelance Tutors and Facilitators

06. Belfast City Council End Violence Against Women & Girls 2026-2027 Local Change Fund
Closing date: Friday 9th October 12pm

07. The DAS Home Residency
Closing date: Wednesday 14th October

08. Anthology Creative Competitions 2026 
Offering a variety of competitions established to encourage and promote visual artists and writers, the Anthology Creative Awards provide a platform for emerging creatives to publish their work.

09. Artists Now Bursaries
Artist members you can apply for £500 to £1,500 to support the development of your practice, from building skills and knowledge to growing networks and creating new professional opportunities.
Closing date: Thursday 15th October 12pm

Full listings including links on our blog ✨️
https://blickstudios.org/blog/14521/

What`s Happening at Blick This Month

- Blick Creative Fieldtrip – Pricing Your Creative Work - Tuesday 6th October

- Seaside Books Intermediate Poetry Workshop - Tuesday 13th October

- Womenfolk Peer Mentoring - Tuesday 27th October

Visit the events page of our website for more info:

https://blickstudios.org/events/

Some weekend reading our final plant stories for this iteration of Belfast Community Plant Library, this time with the amazing Lauren McFarland from The Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland - @tcv_ni where she tells us about their brillianf work on Green Gyms and community gardens, conservation, native trees and more.

You can also read the interview on the blog on our website (link in profile)

Belfast Plant Stories - Hardest plant to keep alive

Belfast Plant Stories - We asked the people of Belfast about their favourite plants

We are almost finished our Community Plant Library project, just a couple of Plant Stories left to share, today we are asking the people of Belfast how can humans work better with plants to fix environmental problems?

Our final Belfast Community Plant Library Team Plant Stories today sharing my own. I`m not a great gardener, but I love plants (as anyone who has been in our studios will know - they are filled with plants). We have loads of plants in Blick, because I belive they really contribute to a good productive, creative and calm working environment. It wasn’t a conscious design decision when we started the studios to have so many plants. It was only when we started adding them that we realised the value they had to the atmosphere and ambience of the space. Taking care of the plants in the studio is also an added benefit and one of the nicest parts of the job. It always makes you feel better and gets you away from staring at a screen.

Being closer to nature is also a large part of why I moved back to NI (we have so much beautiful countryside here and so close to the city) and I consider myself very fortunate to get to work in the city, but live in the countryside and benefit from that nature everyday. But working in the City Centre and having studios in both the Cathedral Quarter and leafy South Belfast has really highlighted to me the disparity in the access to green spaces for people living in Belfast, with the City Centre having such a shortage of green spaces and plants and trees.

As part of our plant stories from the plant library project we also got some tips from local people on how to take care of plants 🪴

Belfast Community Plant Library Team Plant Stories - today with Rosy James the person who does all the important financial work for Blick and Belfast Design Week so these kind of projects can happen, she is also largely responsible for most of the plants in Blick!

Here you can read a bit about Rosy and her interest in plants.

Belfast Plant Stories - First plant to make you fall in love with taking care of plants

We asked the people of Belfast what was the first plant to make them fall in love with taking care of plants