August 2010
12 posts
5 tags
Two's a pair
On 24th September, 26 Treasures will spend an evening at the V&A. Some of the 26 writers will invite visitors to take a stroll around our exhibition. The V&A calls these little treats ‘Lates’. Every Friday, they encourage people to come along after work and spend some time in history. They’ve called the Late we’re getting involved in ‘Two’s a Pair’. Which got me thinking. 26 Treasures is...
5 tags
Random thoughts
It’s been a wonderful experience to work with the V&A. Here’s a museum that attracts people from all parts of the country and the world. There’s so much there, literally millions of objects, too many even to go on permanent display. So by focusing on just 26 out of the millions, we have to be conscious that we are giving only the most fleeting glimpse into the collection. Pure chance too....
3 tags
WatchThe promo video for 26 Treasures.
3 tags
"The play's the thing"
Collaboration’s a wonderful thing. You can’t really work as a writer in the business world without coming to terms with the need for collaboration. The partnership can be with a client, a designer, a strategist, another writer, but the objective (naturally) is to come up with the best result. That’s the tricky bit. I’ve been reading James Shapiro’s new book Contested Will about ‘who wrote...
5 tags
The Tea Ceremony
The idea was simple. 26 writers, 26 objects, 62 words each. But with only 26 writers getting the opportunity to appear at the V&A, a new challenge surfaced. How to get more writers involved. The ones outside the chosen 26 who said they wanted to join in. Through 26 Treasures and Beyond we’ve involved more writers. And from Wednesday, their writing’s been appearing on the homepage...
3 tags
26 Treasures and Beyond - online exhibition
“How would you choose?” I ask myself. “From thousands of objects, how could you possibly choose which one to write about?” I was grateful that I didn’t have to choose, that my treasure was allocated to me. I didn’t have to go and seek it out. However, phrasing it like that, ‘seek it out’, I think that this perhaps was one of the fun elements of the ‘26 Treasures And Beyond’ project....
3 tags
What makes one thing a treasure and another simply...
Working in a design environment I think about this a lot. A treasure is something that has value. Not necessarily monetary value but value in the sense that it adds something to people’s lives. It has been created with care and consideration and in turn is cared for and cherished. All of our 26 Treasures in the V&A are priceless. Some because of the rarity and refinement of their materials,...
7 tags
A short story of identity
So where did this logo come from? The 26 on the plinth? The colours? Today, our special guest writer reveals all…
It began as an offer of help to John Simmons from me. It led to an email asking for Pearlfisher’s help with the website for 26 Treasures. It extended into a proposal to design the identity. It progressed to a meeting where Rob and Dan from the 26 Treasures team shared their...
6 tags
Phone home, tell friends
Two days ago, we realised something. That by clicking around the website, it’s pretty easy to learn what 26 Treasures is all about. There’s a teaser here, a blog post there, a press release under, a headline over. If you know a little, you can learn a lot. But then one of us asked a question. Would a visitor who’s just come from the moon and has never heard of 26 Treasures...
5 tags
Telling creation stories
© V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Each writer taking part in 26 Treasures is responding to their object in 62 words. Why 62 words? Because 26 Treasures is about reflection - a person’s reflection on an object. Reflect 26. You get 62. When you arrive at the entrance to the British Galleries in the V&A in September, you’ll be invited to read the 62-word...
3 tags
An evening with the writers
Last Thursday, writers from 26 Treasures ventured to Elmwood’s offices in Soho (thanks, Laura) to enjoy an evening of words. We put faces to emails. We shared stories. We indulged in a little wine. Uche, our filmmaker, joined us to record the night, which included readings of some of the 26 pieces that will appear across the British Galleries (1500 - 1760) of the V&A during the London...
4 tags
