Friday 12th October: Absolut PSM for London Cocktail Week - Final Photos

Thank you so much to everyone who visited my installation for Absolut over London Cocktail Week!  Here are Kish Kash (repeated in the reflection of the kaleidoscope, Camille Walala with Julia Jomaa, Grace Woodward with Kitty Joseph, Erika Soliven with Lena Romain and Louise Oliver, and bottom two photos thanks to ScottCanEat.  Top photo is a self-portrait on my way at Tottenham Court Road Station.

Friday 12th October: Absolut PSM for London Cocktail Week - Work In Progress

Absolut chose the nation's new favourite cocktail as inspiration for their presence at London Cocktail Week with their "Porn Star Martini Townhouse".  The immersive experience took each ingredient as an element to interpret across four floors of a beautiful Victorian building in Soho. I was brought on board to add my vision to the third floor for the zingy centre of the Porn Star Martini in a Passion Fruit Kaleidoscope. The multi-sensory journey through the townhouse brought to life the tastes, aromas and sensations of the cocktail which also includes Vanilla and Champagne.  The final stop on the top floor of the house was an Absolut Vanilla Bar, where visitors were given the opportunity to take part in a mixologist master-class.  The brand ambassador taught you how to make your own martini to finally taste all the flavours in the aromatic drink.

Here are shots from my initial development working with set builders "Scene 2" who helped convert by origami maquette into the final geodesic dome.  I really like these shots to see the complete construction of the semisphere that we built to represent the passion fruit.  This was concealed in the final installation as the experience was the inside world of the fractal form.  Here you could lay down on a soft undulating floor (the seeds) to look up at your reflection in a spinning kaleidoscope.  Part of the panelling was made from my favourite iridescent perspex which glowed a petroleum pink / purple / gold hue to perfectly echo the passion fruit colour palette.  Here are the plastic samples and tests where we tried out different foils.  These were also used in miniature icosahedrons hanging in the space as nectar pods to hold passion fruit marshmallows as the taste aspect of the immersive experience. 

(bottom two photos sourced from Scene 2)

Thursday 30th June: New Designers

Yesterday I had the opportunity to view the New Designers exhibition to select and award my favourite 10 emerging graduate designers on behalf of the show's sponsor Absolut.  Here are examples of those names which I chose as a cross-section of inspirations and materials.
  
From top to bottom:  CSM's Josephine Ortega's ingenious self-taught latch-hook rugging based on TFL upholstery, Kirstie Faulkner's multi-layer experimental surface-design fashion textiles at UCA, Gray's School of Art Ellie Turner's tactile textiles inspired by sensory stimulation affects on autism, Abi Organ's accessories from amplifiers with catches made from jack plugs at Rochester, Buck's Isabel Webb's sustainable rugs pieced together from recycled carpets,  Leeds Tamar Attia's fun painterly figurative screen-prints, a detail of CSM Harriet Sennet's hand-painted ceramic tiles,  Leeds graduate Theo Riviere's "Material Poetry" of sand-blast concrete and wood-lathe and laminate sculptures, De Montford's Charlotte Winkley's pastel'n' metallic fabrics and wallpapers,  Lily Read's brass geometric jewellery at Manchester.

Part 1:  Jewellery & Contemporary Design, Crafts, Textiles, Fashion & Costume Design

29 June - 02 July 2016 at Business Design Centre, London, N1

Thursday 22nd June: Stonewall x Absolut LGBT Pride Campaign

Absolut and Stonewall have partnered on a series of designer customised bottles to raise money for LGBT charity through an online auction via Givergy.  Here is my bottle for which I found every colour of the spectrum to make the entire rainbow for Pride. Bottles are covered in sequins and rhinestones at carnival, so this is my interpretation of a celebration theme but making it with my signature folded foil ruffles.  I believe that any visibility of support to Pride is a positive step to pushing the message of world peace and the rainbow works perfectly on the iconic Absolut bottle.  Big Ups to them for making this campaign #AbsolutPride.

The auction closes during Pride this weekend in London.  Check out the other designers including Henry Holland, SIBLING, Gareth Pugh, Piers Atkinson, Princess Julia (see above) and more here, then bid over on the GIVERGY platform here.