Speaking to a creative agency acquaintance yesterday I was astonished to discover that he wasn’t attending the current Chelsea Flower Show or even following its progress on TV. Aghast, I asked him how he could hold his head up as a branding consultant without any knowledge of the very best of living design that the planet has to offer – and on his own doorstep, to boot. ‘I get by with a little help from my friends', he replied. I quickly realised that he was celebrating the 65th birthday of Joe Cocker, but, all the same…come on. I note from the diary of my life that it’s five years today that I appeared on Robert Elms’ BBC London radio show, promoting my book, Guinness Is Guinness: the colourful story of a black and white brand. Now, Elms was exactly the kind of person, a self-styled image guru, for whom design, albeit in the world of clothes, was his way in, his ticket to ride. Someone with Chelsea in his back yard who never had the nous to skip off the King's Road and visit the Flower Show and attempt to understand where top design is really at. Come to think of it, I’ve worked with many ‘designers’ who thought that design is what they did at their computers. Or something in the cut of their perfectly rumpled hair. I’ve never met one who has visited Chelsea Flower Show, the foremost exhibition of contemporary design in the world today. OK, there’s outstanding design in the metallic mosaic of Kyoto railway station. And there’s appealing design in the gladdening gleam of the i-Phone. But real, living design only truly exists in the ephemeral gardens of Chelsea Flower Show for one annual week in May. It’s the Hermitage come to life. I don’t want to go to Chelsea/Oh no, it does not move me is the refrain I’ve always heard from graphic designers. Given the blandness and conformity I see in much everyday branding design, I wonder where designers actually get their inspiration from. Chelsea may well be run by a set of stuffed shirts and thronged by representatives of the society of gits, but the quest for bravery in design should pull anyone who really cares about design beyond all that. You haven’t seen a gold medal Chelsea garden, you don’t know what love is.
Mark Griffiths http://www.idealconsulting.co.uk/
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Uncomfortable moment there when I thought you were singing the praises of the unmentionable football team. But no, more life-enhancing than that. To be fair, we both know one designer who loved the Chelsea Flower Show and was there every year - Frances Newell. And you're right, you would never find Frances in front of a computer to design anything.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, John. And well said. As I was writing this, I even remembered meeting Frances at Chelsea one year. But mentioning her would have ruined my ability to generalise and lessened the impact of my provocation!
ReplyDeleteWeirdly I found myself watching Chelsea on the box on Friday evening. Suddenly it was 8pm and Katy came in to watch `Eastenders'. I felt suddenly disappointed and cheated out of something that, without me realising it, had completely caught my attention. They were showing these flowers called Iris'. Now, I knew of such a flower, but not its beauty, variety or delicate form. I was so lost in the intricacy and brio of these marvellous flowers that the prospect of Phil Mitchell and Dot Cotton felt like an abuse of my senses. Later I returned (via the Red Button) and continued my fascination.
ReplyDeleteWhat was odd about this whole episode is that I do not garden, only just manage to mow the grass and, famously, thought that oats grow under the ground (cue laughter from my wife).
They say that gardening draws you in as you grow older, like conservatism, Pat Metheny and beer festivals. Perhaps it does. Maybe, this is the beginning of some kind of end. But, if it is, it is a gateway through which I really enjoyed walking.
As the celebrity list at this year's Chelsea shows, gardening is far from being the pursuit of the third age that many trendy 20 and 30 somethings consider it to be (Stephen Fry, Sienna Miller, Joanna Lumley, Rod Stewart, Bill Nighy, come on!) It is something for all ages. The green behind the ears can also be green fingered. It is also 'the great outdoors' for those of us not inclined to climb mountains or run marathons. It is a true education in the important things of life. James May's plasticine garden featured thousands of small contributions from schoolchildren. Organisations like the National Trust are currently campaigning to get children involved in growing things and an understanding and appreciation of where food comes from and what good food is. More people now have allotments than at any time since WW2. Ultimately, gardening is pure creativity, a living, breathing art form that is slowly emerging from its Percy Thrower tweed jacket.
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