A-Z | RAARR exhibition

The RAARR exhibition (pronounced RAAARRRGHHHH!) is an exhibition of 22 commissioned drawings of animals by some of the worlds leading illustrators. The twist… they weren’t aloud to draw the head or face; instead this was the job of 22 school children. The young felt-tip wielding children added their own personal touch to the illustrations by adding heads, colours, limbs and anything else they could imagine.

The result of this unique and intriguing project can be seen below....

A-Z | Quentin Blake

A new exhibition at the Foundling Museum showcases recent work of one of Britain’s most successful and best loved illustrators, Quentin Blake.

The Exhibition showcases over 60 works commissioned by 4 hospitals. Blake’s aim was to create work that would make being in or visiting hospital a “less alien” and more of a normal experience. “What I have tried to include is a certain amount of detail, some interesting activities, and some suggestions of the little drama of relationships, so that the viewers - especially any who have to wait - may feel the desire to go on looking and perhaps even 

to speculate about the stories happening in front of them."

The illustrations are in 4 separate hospitals and took 5 years to complete. The first was Planet Zog for The Alexandra Avenue Health and Social Care Centre in South Harrow. This hospital cares for young children so Blake wanted to create an alien planet to fit the alien feel of going to the hospital. Blake cheekily reversed the roles of doctors and aliens to make the patients and visitors feel more at ease with going to the hospital and maybe seeing the doctors in a different more fun light.

We would like to introduce our two new members of staff - James and Michelle. Both James and Michelle have started this exciting new year as part of our creative team and bring their own individual expertise, experience and enthusiasm to the company. We hope you enjoy working with them as much as we do!

James Randall - Designer

“I have embraced the design world with open arms now for over 10 years now and worked upon a wide variety of clients in this time including Ferrero, Mars, Burton Biscuits, Citi Bank and Hilton Hotels. I am looking forward to bringing this knowledge to P&W over the coming years.

In my respite I enjoy throwing myself off the sides of mountains on my bike or on a snowboard.

I enjoy travelling the world, rich foods and am growing a odd fascination with speciality coffee...”

A-Z | PARTY!!!!!

Just before Christmas all at P&W set off for the Christmas party (bar Jess swanning off to Paris and Akiko on Business in Japan). This was no ordinary party, it involved a 3 course cookery class at L'atelier des chefs. A challenge for beginners and accomplished cooks alike.

I decided that I wanted to experiment with a new Lomography camera which meant you could create a whole roll of continuous images as a panorama. Which was perfect for this event.  

(Sections of the rolls above and joined below)

Studio 2011 Christmas Card

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL AT P&W DESIGN

A-Z | Olympic Mascots

As we look forward to London hosting the 2012 Olympics we thought we would take a brief look at the history of the Olympic Mascot. Since the first mascot, Waldi, made its appearance at the 1972 Munich games, the mascot has played an important marketing role as well as trying  to reflect the personally and culture of the host city and country. 

Earlier this year London announced Wenlock, the Olympic mascot and Mandeville, the Paralympic mascot, to the world. These two digital-age characters were created from the last two drops of British steel which was used in the construction of the Olympic Stadium. The Wenlock & Mandeville merchandising has been growing and though there has been some negative press towards these little characters, ultimately they will service the purpose to promote the games.

Holiday Range | Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

We have designed the seasonal branding for Tesco’s US chain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. The holiday branding solution was implemented on their private label packaging, advertising and point of sale materials, including a holiday guide/brochure and supporting website.

The holiday packaging range spans all categories impulse, grocery, bakery, dairy, meat and frozen. A palette of colors was chosen to cover the entire holiday season, implemented through the striped background. The use of bright, eye-catching colors expresses the fact that these are seasonal (out of the norm) offerings. Oranges and purple for fall/Halloween/thanksgiving and red and green for winter/Christmas, the additional colors used on impulse and gifting items to round out the color scheme.

 Handcrafted scrolls contain fun holiday and celebratory illustrations. Large windows showcase the products where possible and deliver freshness.

 "We wanted to create a colorful and enticing range of products that have a gift wrapped feel but still appear fresh and foodie. The hand drawn holding device and background textures help drive a bespoke handmade feeling to the range, whilst the hand sketched icons re-enforce the seasonal message without shouting about it. We hope the range comes across as fun, fresh and an alternative to the predictable preconceptions of what holiday packaging should look like, however, still retaining the all important added value cues you would expect from a holiday range."