Tamara Salaman (Creative Director) came to me asking for help to promote the Ronnie Wood collection that she and Ronnie had recently made. She wanted something tactile and bespoke as only three were to be made. I art directed and designed the buying guide, flyer and using the buying guide as a template I came up with a beautifully hand bound, hand made look book that was tailored to the shoot she had done.
The first year we get to do the London Design Festival ourselves, Liberty holds an exhibition on contemporary British designers who are still designing, manufacturing and selling furniture in Britain. My original idea of giving each invitee to the party a airplane style model kit, got shot down due to cost, so I decided to make one using 3D rapid prototyping and then photograph it. It worked well and the party was a great success.
Celebrities, opinion thinkers and general media bodies get invited to these ‘Hard hat parties’ where they get a sneak peak of the transformation that occurs once a shop, hotel, salon etc has a redesign. I however, got to design the invite. A great budget and a new icon (the Zebra) in the soon to be real recession, I thought, lets give them something different. And different it was, a 0.8mm thick, acid etched A5 slab of brass hand delivered to them by the press team. Grayson Perry thought it was good enough to comment by RSVPing and kindly saying it was stunning.
The brief – to direct the customer around the maze that is Liberty, get them from a to b, then to the cafe. Working closely with Endpoint and Maxine Groucutt (Head of Visual), I art directed the design of the wayfinding system now in place, from choosing the typeface to adding the brass elements on the corners and deciding on the finish of material used. The long audit of the placement of signs was definitely a lesson in patience!
Along with the Iconic store being rearranged, redesigned and completely revamped, I art directed and designed the party invites for the launch to Liberty’s loyal customers. I spruced the invite up with the help of illustrator Von, using the now iconic zebra of which you can find in the Scarf room.
Christmas in July, where the press get to see upcoming products in store before the general public, a sneak peak if you like. I art directed and designed the press invite and press folder. The invite was a pop-up liberty, foiled to highlight elements of the store such as the ship & windows, along with a bright purple foil on the type to add attention to the information. This invite got great reviews, I believe Alexandra Shulman, Editor of British Vogue said it was beautiful. The press folder handed out on the day, was again based around the iconic building, foiled, folded and with pocket to hold all information on products, it was also a great success.
This was a great project, Liberty was transformed into The Greatest Show on Earth, with mannequins in cannons, ring masters, clowns and flags dangling from the atriums. Shown here is the Christmas cardholder party invite, which I art directed and designed. It was based on an illustration I commissioned from illustrator Shaun Mills, Shaun and I closely worked on it together to get the right look, which then turned into an a3 poster sent out to cardholders and was sent out in the Evening Standard.
Tamara Salman (Creative Director) asked me to design her recently shot Men’s Fashion and Women’s Accessories collections. I gladly accepted and came up with two beautifully made luxury look books, foiled on the covers and super gloss pages to show off the collections.
The Melisma lads asked for some help with the flyers and promotion, here are some of the early flyers and the last ever poster where they donated all proceeds to Marie Curie Cancer Care. Promotion took shape in flyers, fly-posting, podcasting and crazy stuff like building a life sized purple cow. All great fun.
Working with Jonathan Burbidge (Photographer), I art directed and designed these fit guides which were produced for the denim department which helps the customer to know their fit. Printed on recycled paper, covered with canvas and bound with specially designed steel binders, they were then chained to tables to go with the urban look of the department.
Three times a year Liberty has parties for its loyal cardholders, I designed a two invites (VIP & customer) based on gothic trends from the catwalks and re-drew a gothic pattern found within the Liberty store, this was then embossed on the cover, on the inside, a concertina saddle stitched pull out catalogue with voucher.
Working closely with Justin from Knoll, Katie Miles (VM, Liberty) and Paddy Bos Coe (Designer), I art directed the exhibition graphics and designed the press invite. The press event and exhibition was a great success and had an introduction by the Observer’s architecture and design correspondent, Stephen Bayley.
Working along with the V&A, Liberty showcased a host of Chinese designers in an in-store exhibition. This is the guide I designed that accompanied the exhibition, it was also sent out in Time Out.
all work is copyright Matthew D. Schofield 2009