Waspish California beekeeper Ronald Fischer is a model with enough buzz about him to rival Eva, Naomi and Kate. Not so much the new face of Estée Lauder, more the new body of Gale’s Honey. Whateve
Design Week didn’t know what it was letting itself in for when it co-organised a competition to design a hoarding for British Land’s Corn Exchange (DW 16 December, 1994).
The seemingly innocent venture culminated in architect Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and graphic designer Morag Myers- cough collaborating on the winning hoarding design, which was erected last week.
The 65m-long result is des- cribed as “bright”, “funny” and “ugly”. It has transformed a building site in London’s Mark Lane into a building site with a huge hoarding.
“Great,” say nearly everyone involved and passers-by. City of London planners, however, are less than thrilled, as its street prominence is against planning policy. Initial reports indicated it had to go. Later contact with City of London chief planner Peter Rees suggests a compromise.
Rees says the developers have agreed to clad the scaffolding above the hoarding, as if that makes a difference.
“It would have been easier if they [British Land] had talked to us first,” says Rees. Wouldn’t it just. But not as much fun.
And what of Myerscough herself? “The colours are not as bright as I wanted,” says the unrepentant designer, who was, after all, trying to create something eye-catching. That was the idea. Did somebody mention design effectiveness?
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