The Hemingway Vintage Festival – Southbank, London 2011
Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway brought their award winning Vintage Festival to invigorate London’s South Bank.
The weekend of the 29th July 2011 saw a kaleidoscope of colour, colliding with fashion, film, art, design and music from the glory days of our rich cultural lineage. The 21 acre site was transformed into a vibrant wonderland, intertwining styles from the 1920s to the 1980s.The centre piece was a full scale vintage high street and market place open to the public. To create an authentic atmosphere de5ign4 were commissioned to paint the shop facades of six classic brands. Benefit, Batiste, Cath Kidston, New Era, Horrockses and Oxfam submitted their own specifications, which design4 recreated into a highly polished rendition.
In keeping with traditional craftsmanship, the set was hand-painted to create an authentic feel and move away from the usual digital print. This demanded a range of highly skilled techniques, such as spray-painted photorealism, sign-writing, brushed illustration, stencil work and fret cutting.
The days were long with hard graft, the sleep was short and on hard surface. A 19 hour working day spread over 14 days sure takes its toll but good food and good team-work prevail in these situations. It could be quite easy to get caught up in the fear due to the scale of some jobs but having more than 1 brain on the case pushes that evil monster aside in most circumstances. However many years experience we have between us, every job is different so you have to be on the ball and be prepared for an onslaught of problems to overcome.
Special thanks to:
Nick Bartlett-designer [Secret Productions]
Laila Paddidar – production manager/client contact [Papa Projects]
Tom Forsythe – construction manager [thomasforsyth.com]