Sponsored by:

About The Sponsor

Slough Town Centre Business Improvement District (Slough BID) is a business led, not for profit organisation representing and working on behalf of 400 businesses, driving positive changes in the town centre. Our focus is to promote and improve the designated BID Zone by helping to make Slough a thriving, welcoming, safe place to visit, live, work and do business.

Business Improvement Districts nationwide provide a mechanism for businesses in a designated area to pool their resources and invest in agreed products and services. Slough BID was established in April 2020 has a mandate to deliver a set of proposals set out in our business plan over a 5-year term. We will be going to our 2nd ballot term in 2025.

Project Statement

The celebration of diversity, cultures, and the rejection of racial stereotypes are vital ingredients in ensuring fair representation. Community is all about the people within it, and it is my responsibility to authentically portray an array of faces, hairtypes, age groups, and ethnicities with a locally accurate appearance. It is not enough to discuss racial representation; we must make it visible to all. 

As a resident of Slough for over six years, I have meticulously designed and created a tailored short-list of individuals for this project, depicting the town’s growing diverse community. Deliberately immersing myself in my surroundings with the individuals I encountered on a day-to-day basis, serving as my creative direction. Using photography of both well-known and lesser-known locations as a backdrop for the design, I have captured the essence and spirit of everyday life in Slough. My work aims to present a brighter and more truthful perspective that challenges Slough’s negative
reputation head-on. 

About The Artist

Kazembe Hamadi is an illustrator and 2D animator, a professional artist specializing in poster design, title treatments, key art, marketing assets, and portrait art. He has been a part of the art, photography, and film scene since 2002, his achievements include being a winning finalist in the 2006 Nationwide Mercury Prize Art Competition, bronze medallist in the UK Skills Art Advanced Challenge 2007, and Best Film Poster in the Odeon Short Film Competition in 2009. In 2010 a selection of his work was published for the first time in the hardcover book ‘Virtuoso; Showcasing Talented Artists from Around the World.’ In 2012 Kazembe created 2D animations for London Bus-Tops, a collaborative public art installation project spanning 20 London boroughs to form part of London’s cultural Olympiad for the 2012 Olympic Games.

In 2013 he won first place in the State-of-the-Art Cinema ‘Design a movie poster’ Competition and went on to create poster art for the indie musical rom-com God Help the Girl for Metrodome distribution in 2014. Since then, Kazembe secured a Remote Work Experience Role with the Odeon Cinemas Marketing Department creating design assets to celebrate ODEON Cinemas’ release of The Batman, promoting the free comic book giveaway campaign across Odeon’s CRM newsletters, social media channels, and digital screens. He created a print design for the March issue of Village Voice Community Magazines to support Odeon Dudley.

The marketing team used the print asset to highlight new film releases for the Odeon Cinemas Spring Campaign. In 2022 Kazembe signed with Resource Productions, a community interest company that works with local talent and helps to provide individuals with creative development programs and freelance opportunities within the film industry. He was the Graphic Designer for Flyer Films production Us & In Between, a BFI x Network funded short film, in association with Resource Productions, creating the film’s opening title treatment design. He also designed a fully credited one-sheet poster asset for the online and print campaigns. Kazembe was selected to create public art on Slough High Street in Berkshire (UK) for the Artscape Lamp Post Art Project from The Slough Hub. Artscape is an ambitious initiative to transform Slough through art, beautification, and environmental consciousness.

Kazembe Hamadi has exhibited widely around the UK including The National Film Theatre in London, The Trocadero in London, The Hospital Gallery in Covent Garden, Light House Gallery in Wolverhampton, Pitshanger Manor Gallery in Ealing Broadway, Ada Street Gallery in Bethnal Green and most recently with State-of-the-Art Cinema exhibitions held at the A&D Gallery and The Strand Gallery in London.

 

Credits

Artist: Yuanda (@i.am.yuyanda)
Funded by Slough BID
Supported by Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre
Developed by Viva Slough and The Slough Hub