Issue #111

Welcome to your weekly dose of TooXToo, this week featuring Selfridges Jacquemus cornershop, Pret’s fashion debut, an experimental typeface, and Stoneleigh wine’s plant surgery…

Selfridges Jacquemus Corner shop

Simon Jacquemus, French fashion designer and creative genius has curated a surrealist installation in London’s Selfridges. From a luxury-bag and bucket hat vending machine to a swimming-pool changing room, there are a multitude of photo-opportunities for those keen to be immersed in the blue brand world of Jacquemus.

The pop up is titled Le Bleu and is spread across several locations within the store. Customers can browse and shop the brand in the creative retail space ‘The Corner Shop’, and then experience the photo opportunities and brand activation in the Old Selfridges Hotel, a former hotel space that is now being used as a pop-up venue.

Jacquemus commented on the design of the space: "I wanted to create crazy and unrealistic installations, all related to water and bathroom imagery”.

The pop-up installations that make up Jacquemus’ brand activation are open until 4 June 2022, and are part of a series of other Jacquemus' vending machine pop-ups located across Europe's fashion capitals, including Milan and Paris.

Not only does this unique and creative space give the brand great visibility, and designer fans a chance to capture their highly desired content for their social channels. As well as this, it also marks the launch of a permanent JACQUEMUS accessories store at Selfridges.

 

Pret’s salad-inspired fashion debut

We can all rely on Pret to provide us with a quick, healthy, and DELICIOUS lunch when we are busy bombing around the streets of London. Our beloved Pret is levelling up and expanding their offer into the world of fashion, and we are here for it.

Pret has teamed up with three London based fashion designers: Richard Quinn, Ashish and Daniel W Fletcher who have each designed their own silk scarf inspired by Pret’s new summer salads. The new salads behind the designs are the Miso Chicken & Greens Salad Bowl, the Tamari & Ginger Aubergine Salad Bowl and the Pesto Pasta Salad Box.

You can get your hands on one of these delicious pieces via Pret’s Instagram account for £30– all proceeds made will go to the Pret foundation. The brand’s charity works towards alleviating homelessness, poverty, and hunger throughout the UK. Rest assured you can wear your silk scarf knowing your money has gone to a good cause, whilst looking as delectable as these new salads.

Not only will these scarves act as a clever marketing stunt for the brand who are looking to promote their new line of salad bowls, they are expanding Pret’s offering widening their reach and appeal to customers old, and new.

A new and inspiring experimental typeface

A Typeface characterises the look and feel of the written word, which has an impact on the tone of voice and consequently the effect created for its readers.

‘Occlusion Grotesque’ is a new experimental typeface created by Bjorn Karmann and is worth writing about due to its unique process of design. Karmann creates the typeface by carving letters into the bark of a tree; as the tree grows, matures the carved characters deform manipulating a new design output.

Bjorn will capture the variations created by the tree’s growth annually, taking a deep dive into what it means to design using natural materials, on nature’s own terms. This project is about more than creating a type face, it is also about challenging how we, as humans, are dominating nature for our own needs. Karmann has reversed the roles of power in this design process, giving the natural world the lead to create and form its own type face.

This font has effectively been born out of the gradual evolution of the scars left on the tree bark and is unlike other typefaces we have ever seen before. The font is only the first part of his project though, and as he explains on his site- Chapter 2,” Deep bite “, will focus on the study the healing of plants.

Using nature alongside the digital world to create a new typeface is a powerful juxtaposition, which allows us to re-imagine the existing hierarchy in nature which gives humans dominance. Could projects like this be the beginning of a new way of determining creative power, and forcing people to look outwards in new ways for inspiration?

Stoneleigh’s wine plant surgery

For three days only, New Zealand wine brand Stoneleigh opened the UK’s first plant surgery – at Broadway Market in London which coincided with World Sauvignon Blanc Day (6 May).

The new concept and activation invited plant/ wine shoppers to come and have their plants looked after while sipping on a glorious glass of Stoneleigh in a immersive forest environment. The inspiration behind this pop-up was a desire from the brand to “breathe new life into houseplants that have seen better days” as well as to provide a space to educate ‘plant parents’ who need more knowledge on specific plant varieties to help their green leafy friends thrive indoors. 

The Plant surgery is part of the Pernod Ricard-owned brand’s new “It’s in our nature” campaign, which it said captures Stoneleigh’s commitment to sustainability. Part of the campaign is also a mural wall inspired by nature that will be situated at Euston Square, viewable on 14^th May. The wall was designed as a hybrid artwork of paint and natural resources, offering city-dwellers the chance to “reconnect with nature” and take home a piece of seeded paper to plant at home, which will be torn from the mural itself.

Urban spaces are increasingly being dominated by varying degrees of biophilic design – from smaller plants to full living feature walls and ceilings. People in cities crave a more natural environment to work, live and shop within as a way of bridging the gap between the urban jungle, and natural world.

Stoneleigh have cleverly curated a space that allows more people to learn about plants, reviving them to refresh their home or office spaces – a service (fuelled by wine) that received positive feedback, and might see a return sometime soon.