Webb & Webb Design Limited

Watts Gallery nominated for the Art Fund Prize

The restoration of Webb & Webb client the Watts Gallery by ZMMA architects has been nominated for the 2012 Art Fund Prize, the prize recognises excellence in museum and gallery exhibition design and refurbishment completed in the previous year.

Watts Gallery, which opened in 1904, was built to provide a permanent exhibition for the studio collection of works of art belonging to George Frederic Watts and W&W designed the gallery guide to accompany the restoration and new permanent exhibition as well as a gallery wayfinding system.

We also designed the book An Artist’s Village: G.F Watts and Mary Watts at Compton for Philip Wilson Publishers, an division of I.B.Tauris and Co Ltd. The 176 page book tells the story of the impact of Watts and his wife Mary on Compton, a small village in Surrey which became their artists’ retreat and where they built the Gallery, the Compton pottery, and the extraordinary Cemetery Chapel.

Both the guide and book are available to buy directly from the Watts Gallery online shop by clicking on this link.

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If you don’t look good, we don’t look good

Vidal Sassoon revolutionised British hairdressing in the sixties, removing the back-combed, heavily lacquered artificial looks of the fifties and replacing them with a style that appeared severely cut but relied on the natural way hair fell for effect. He is quoted as saying, ‘…I wanted to change things. I wanted to eliminate the superfluous and get down to the basic angles of cut and shape.’

As such Sassoon was an innovator, he changed the way people looked at the ‘hairstyle’, much like the photographer Brian Duffy did with his images. Duffy died in 2010 and last year we designed his first retrospective book, this image of Sassoon was shot in 1969 at the heights of both their fame.

Vidal Sassoon, 1928-2012

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P&O 175th Anniversary

The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, P&O, was founded in 1837, to mark their 175th anniversary Webb & Webb have worked with the P&O Heritage Collection on the identity and anniversary book.

The 264 page book was written by Ruth Artmonsky and tells the story of those whose lives were directly impacted by P&O, the traveller, the immigrant, the crew, agents and managers. The book gives readers a feel for a period when travelling took weeks not hours and P&O was forging the links of the global supply chain we rely upon today.

Having acquired the P&O Group in 2006 Dubai Ports World, the world’s third largest ports operator, is the proud preserver of the P&O Heritage collection, including a collection of more than 25,000 documents, paintings, photographs and memorabilia dating back to the formation of P&O. Webb & Webb worked with P&O Heritage curator Susie Cox to select the richest images from the collection to illustrate the book as well as commissioning new photography taken in the archive.

The book was launched in London by DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and will be available from June in book stores as well as online via poheritage.com.

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Advantage Webb & Webb clients

Congratulations to Webb & Webb clients the Barber Institute on their nomination for two Museum & Heritage Awards for Excellence 2012, the M&H Readers’ Award and the Marketing Campaign award.

We’re really pleased that they have been nominated in the Marketing Campaign category as the campaign in question is one we worked on together for the exhibition ‘Court on Canvas’. Not only was the exhibition the most visited in the Institutes history beating previous record holder ‘Turner’s early Seascapes’ it also manged to double the record for visitor donations.

Hopefully it will be game, set, match Barber Institute on May 16th 2012!

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And the audience gasped!

As a former D&AD (Design and Art Direction) executive committee member, awards jury member, award winner, blah, blah, blah… last nights professional awards results proved just how fallable such award schemes can be. As others have made much noise about this morning the Blackpool ‘Comedy Carpet’ by Gordon Young and Why Not Associates failed to even get a mention let alone the recognition it deserved!

I’ve been going up to Blackpool to visit and assess the design students of Blackpool and the Fylde College for many years and much as I hate to say it, having also spent my childhood just down the coast, the promendae was something to avoid. Now with the sculpture project and the ‘Comedy Carpet’ it’s worth a detour.

Why did D&AD sweep this under the carpet?

Photograph © Christopher Furlong

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Ham House ‘Life Below Stairs’

W&W took a trip down the River Thames to National Trust property Ham House in Richmond last night to attend the opening of the ‘Life Below Stairs’ permanent exhibition we’ve been working on.

In the basement of the property, where the servants lived and worked, we’ve created historically accurate life size wall illustrations of real members of staff who would have served Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart in the late 17th-century. The illustrations are by Peter Bailey who you can see here standing next to Talbot the page boy, note the glass of authentic Daleside Brewery Morocco Ale brewed to a secret recipe from Levens Hall in Westmoreland first developed more than 300 years ago.

Through the centuries Ham has survived war, fashion and neglect to retain a uniquely mysterious aura. Some visitors even claim that it is haunted by the ghosts of its past residents, or maybe it’s just our illustrations?

Edward Bawden’s London in Harrods Magazine

Edward Bawden’s London written by Peyton Skipwith and Brian Webb and designed by Webb & Webb has been recommended in the February issue of the Harrods Magazine it is available instore from the Harrods bookshop.

Or you can purchase a copy of the book, published by V&A Publishing, in the V&A Museum shop or online from here…

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Oundle School Cripps Library

Webb & Webb have been working alongside client and friends Luke Hughes and Company on the on the refurbishment of the Cripp Library at Oundle School in Northamptonshire.

Working with Luke Hughes, the School Librarian, Leigh Giurlando and members of the Oundle Senior Management Team W&W designed and oversaw the production and fitting of donor boards, room signage, shelf signage and inspirational quotes throughout the building. The impressive space is home to more than 22,000 books as well as the school archive and The Clive Jacques Rare Book Room which contains the School’s collection of rare and valuable books, including a 1541 Cranmer Bible, a 15th century book of hours, many 16th and 17th century books and a growing archive of books by and about John Piper.

All of the signage was specially produced to our designs and drawings by Capital Models, an architectural model maker and installed by local signage company Pumpkin Print.

Five coloured rings!…

Webb & Webb would like to wish all our clients and friends a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Look out in 2012 for Albert for the High Jump, An Olympian Paw Prints Book by Holly Skeet, illustrated by Chris Brown, designed by Webb & Webb and published by Hand & Eye Editions.

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Baseline 60

The latest copy of Baseline magazine, edition 60, features a comprehensive review of the entire Design book series by Alan Powers. Alan, who is Professor of Architecture and Cultural History at the University of Greenwich, referring to the size and standard 96 page calls the series ‘miniature versions of grand folios’ and commends the books for making their subjects approachable.

There’s just one error in the article, since the review was written and during the magazine’s production process there have been two more books published! The total number of books in the series is now 14.

You can buy all the books in the series here…

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