31 Oct
We arrived on Hanbury Street and gathered in a close by meeting room. We begin the day with an introduction to the window pitch presented to Wieden and Kennedy. The main points Hannah explained were that it would be sweet shop focusing on curiosity. From the window, passer by's could try unusual flavours that are associated with christmas - brussel sprouts to mince pies. The theme would be inspired by the Victorian era with traditional imagery that is familiar to everyone, similarly performed by Hardy’s and Mr Simms. The project would be a unusual interpretation on the expected storefront, playing on the weird and wonderful that we all can’t help but look at.
From the introduction, we now, as a team, needed to visualise the final product. We had a mix of branders, graphic designers and illustrators. We split into areas to develop on: typography - Laura R., colour scheme to begin branding - myself, and illustration - Lakhi and Adi. Hannah and Laura V. began developing the brief to understand what would be possible in the time and budget.
References were Victorian inspired storefronts, interior design, food branding and films. We looked at traditional sweet shops in Britian and more recent interpretation like Hardy's and Mr Simm's. They also dipped into steampunk, referencing images like Alice and Wonderland.
We then each did some version where we played with the type to make it a more visual piece that could stand out from the everyday sweet shop and also to passers by on Hanbury Street.
26 Nov
Hannah has fallen ill and she can’t come to the meeting. We still need to keep pushing through as the installation is next week! I’ve got some notes to update Dee and Jeng on developments.
Going through the presentation:
We chose to not go with Hoxton Sweet Monster Supply, it brings the attention to W+K as ultimately it is about them and celebrating the anniversary of them.it will also be easier for us to have the freedom that Hannah’s originally imagined when pitching. It doesn’t limit us to their flavours or design, for example.
We showed them our brand guide. Logo, colours, typefaces. This will be better for us to keep everything aligned when designing.
Moving on to how the window will look, shop front designed by. We have kept traditional feel with black vinyl that has accents of the gold and decorative panels. The illustrations by Adi and Lakhi are textured with lots of colour. It makes the window memorable and shareable on social media that also draws attention to the sweet jars that people can interact with. With the initial references, it is a weird and wonderful feeling.
Sweets and their labels have been changed to a more minimal and bolder design. With the change of flavours, the names will change too but we will still be using a repurposing supplier that can relate to emotions or Xmas related foods. The mechanism for the dispenser hasn’t changed, housing them stacked on top of each other with a matching design to just show the turning handle.
Copy on various parts like a call to action and instructions will be rewritten to not include monster and be directed towards Wieden and Kennedy.
4 Dec
We are waiting for an update on when the next meeting will be. It’s the week of installation and we need as much feedback as possible. We push on with the dispenser visuals so we can get as much prepared for the meeting presentation.
Shall there be matching decoration? Will it distract? Label or names?
Hannah lets us know the date has now been pushed back. We have an extra week. But we can’t slow down. The pace is picking up and I want is to have the best outcome possible.
The meeting day and we decide to meet up early to ensure everyone is on the same page.
The most important part is the sweets - what a passer by is experiencing themselves - we have our visuals down and so we can focus fully on other details. Speaking with Rock Sweets, the flavours are limited but we have options from that.
Are they weird enough? Curious enough compared to the initial presentation? Should we mix flavours for an unusual sweet?
Our problem at the moment is quantity for the supplier. We can't be over ordering, 4000 is way too many and it’s money we could be spending elsewhere. We need Dee’s expert convincing them for a lesser amount. We also need to discuss our dispenser development, Laura has made dimensions for the build and needs to double check measurements. Then we can get to testing and making sure it won’t risk failing.
The meeting is focusing on smaller details now. Getting things finally moving. Dee wants the sweet situation sorted - deciding on flavours and finding the right supplier to get them on time. An example on the pitch presentation Hannah’s presented the idea of ‘brussel sprouts and turkey gravy’, we need to replicate the weird combinations with limitations of sweet flavours only. We then focused on Christmas flavours and though spices and fruity tastes were commonly associated. A possible alcoholic sweet would be a option too but we need to confirm with the legal team. We narrowed flavours to mince pie, cinnamon apple and possibly chocolate orange and found a new supplier selling 1000 pcs per flavour.
Next was sweet jars. We needed big jars to see from afar, researching cookie and pasta jars to broaden out options. We had looked at a ridged version but I could skew the visuals of the sweets and affect how labels were stuck on. We also considered Apothecary style glasses but they were often too small and would be too complex. In the window. We chose a simple, plain face jar for easy label application and secure lid that wasn’t too modern or decorative.
6 Dec
In a meeting, lots of things began to revolve around the floor being lifted.
We had to think about materials and how it would even work. The door was opening into the room so we now had to think about how we would be placing the floor to access flats and lights easily. We had even considered changing the hinges to the other side! We would have to buy the materials and build the floor in a way that it was secure enough to hold the table holding the jars.
What would be the cheapest way? MDF or plywood? Would the printers help us to stick the vinyls? We could get dowels with a printed foam board to on top?
We made the decision to scrap the idea. Adi’s idea made sense when looking from the front but it was making the setting up process so much more complex. Our time and budget was being eaten up and yet we still hadn’t been able to test so we didn’t even know if it would work seamlessly. The floor could be stuck as a vinyl straight on and we would not need to worry about the door situation. We had not changed the windows vinyl so it would come up half of the bottom panel but hopefully this wouldn’t be a problem.
17 Dec
Set up day
We had been told that most of the work should have been done and all we would need or do was fill the dispensers and jars, apply vinyls, set up the flats and sort out positioning of the lights and smoke machine.
When arriving on Monday we had shown up to the painted room being the only thing completed. The previous windows vinyls were still on! That morning before we had arrived they had began to apply the back wall vinyl and ready to start the floor. We had also seen the placards ready to be put up which was encouraging. We were surprised that the dispenser build hadn’t been built as this would be an important part of our displays experience.