Collectarium creates design-centered activities and engages audiences in new ways of seeing.

Founders Allyson Waller and Sophie Beard are both graphic designers and university lecturers in graphic design. They met while studying for their BAs at Central Saint Martins, and started working together at the Royal College of Art while both students in the college’s MA program in communication, art, and design.

Collectarium’s first project, Lockdown Masks, invited participants to make masks that reflected their experiences of, and feelings about, the Covid lockdown. The masks were then published and shared on Instagram. The project engaged a large audience of people globally, from designers and artists to grandparents and children, and became a photographic memoir of well-being during this time.

@COLLECT_ARIUM