Project description:

2026 marked 40 years since the iconic children’s book, The Jolly Postman, was first published. To celebrate this anniversary, the Postal Museum wanted to create a temporary exhibition that would engage adults and children alike and display for the first time some of the book’s original artwork. They appointed KCA London to design the exhibition and help oversee its delivery.

Our role encompassed shaping the exhibition’s narrative and interpretative approach and delivering all 2D and 3D design. Our brief was to create a space that combined immersive play with a respectful approach to showcasing the book’s artwork and the process of its creators, Janet and Allan Alhberg.

To achieve this, we drew on the book’s humour, interactivity and attention to detail as guiding principles, and set out to create an experience in which visitors could step directly into the story. We did this by recreating each character’s home at an immersive scale, layering in storytelling, object displays, original artworks, interactives and personal quotes from the Ahlbergs to allow visitors to intimately explore both the world of the book and the creative process that went into making it.

As well as developing the narrative and design, we worked closely with Unusual Projects to oversee the detailed design and build of the exhibition, guiding the project from concept to completion.
This was our second exhibition design project with London’s Postal Museum.

We previously worked with them to create Sorted!, their under-8s gallery.