Button, button who's got the button. A V&A Collaboration

This is a project that my very good pal and super-slick graphic designer Johnny Isaacs of Oh Momma! and I did a few years back. Looking at the photos on his fab site got me all nostalgic and reminded me of our awesome collaboration. (A more in depth, and frankly better, breakdown of the project can be found on his site!)

The idea was to create a branding campaign to advertise the fashion exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington with a specific emphasis on enticing a new and younger audience to it's doors. After the flinging about of some absurd ideas we decided upon beginning with a guerilla campaign featuring over-sized dress maker's tools being placed in prominent locations about town to stir curiosity and intrigue amongst it's spectators and represent the V&A with a playful and appealing element of interactivity.

Looking reel-y cool on Brick Lane. Sorry couldn't resist.

Surreal sensation in textiles quarter Spitalfield's Square

Causing a commotion in Carnaby Street...

These object were sooo fun to make and after hunting for gym balls, inhaling impressive doses of gold spray paint, honing in on our bargaining-for-furniture skills and juggling budgets, the finished articles looked fantastic and wonderfully bizarre. Kids and adults alike would stop in their tracks to photograph, touch and play. We couldn't have had a better response!

The props were then later hauled to a studio and photographed to become posters.

The semi-finished posters sans Photoshop finishing touches...

Throughout the development stages of the project Johnny and I became increasingly aware that in order to bring an audience to the museum, it was equally important to bring a bit of the museum to the people too. This lead to the creation of promotional material such as these give-away USB sticks.

These would contain information on the exhibit, a map, promotions and an opening short animation which featured the iconic golden thread, a prominent feature throughout the campaign. I constructed the two prototypes for these from real cotton reels.

All in all the campaign consisted of 'pop-up' installations, USB give-aways, an animation and a series of posters for bus stops, underground stations etc.

Oh and some free t-shirts for me and Johnny that we made with the spare spray paint. Good times.