Client: The Royal Society of Arts
Project: The Coffee House Storytelling
The RSA was born in 1754 when 11 men met in Rawthmells coffeehouse in Covent Garden, London and declared themselves to be the “Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce”. Over the course of the past two and a half centuries it has proactively united people and ideas and has many stories to tell. It wanted to tell these stories to visitors to its headquarters in RSA House on John Adam Street, London and we were briefed to use the opportunity presented by the refurbishment of The Coffee House on a lower floor to do this.
Two key considerations in the project were creating graphic elements which worked sympathetically with the new interior design scheme and the RSA’s visual identity standards. Our solution was to combine a strong typographic approach with stylised line illustrations, conforming to the RSA brand guideline’s dictum that they should be “conceptual, thought-provoking and powerfully simple”. Each illustration highlights the essential message of each display board and draws visitors’ attention.
In short, our brief was to populate The Coffee House and adjoining rooms with stories and messages which would engage and inform visitors; to support the RSA in its mission to “unite people and ideas in collective action to create opportunities to regenerate our world”, and to create attractive and distinctive graphics which would complement the refurbishment of the venue, which we were undertaking in collaboration with CH&Co Catering Ltd.
Our focus was three-fold. First, a story wall in The Coffee House foregrounding the RSA’s founding and mission. Second, a set of 16 boards, displayed on shelving in the Gerard, Old Archive, Doctor Cross and Dame Caroline Hascett rooms, devoted to telling some of the stories from the organisation’s rich history, and, third, an updatable message board communicating regenerative soundbites in the Dame Caroline Hascett Room.
