Fishy shenanigans

It was a great wheeze by Alan Fletcher to get sign company Wood & Wood to celebrate 30 years in business by asking top designers to create a 3D alphabet. But chairman John Wood wasn’t ready for the hot water he got into when Fletcher’s own opus – an A-shaped glass fishtank, with live goldfish – appeared.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, apparently alerted to an exhibition using live animals at Pentagram’s office, wrote to Wood, demanding the tank be altered to meet legal requirements.

Ready to grovel, Wood phoned the society, only to find it knew nothing of the complaint. Wood surmised it was a hoax.

Instinct – and years of dealings – told him the signature, Andrew Jones, must be an alias for Pentagram partner Kenneth Grange. Grange maintains a dignified silence on this fishy affair.