A magical thing happened last Thursday over at Pentagram. Stepping inside a little yard, Pentagram Yard no less, we were welcomed in to the hub of their London office where we sat and listened and smiled our way through Harry Pearce's talk, the latest offering from 26.It was everything you'd expect from a Pentagram partner, a person of notoriety and acclaim yet with humility, humour and childlike wonder at the world around him. Listening to touching anecdotes of Pearce's relationship with Alan Fletcher, we all took pleasure in the disarming simplicity of his work, but mostly his playful way with words.
His upcoming book Conundrums is a collection of witty wordplay, Pearce must be a devil to try and beat at Dingbats! He introduced us to his 'Schizophrenic Roads', a collection of photographs of road signs that are the ultimate in paradox: 'Avenue Road' and 'Pink 'Green' as well as his almost prescient use of typography highlighting the issues in Burma. Pearce's work for Witness, clearly a pursuit of passion and integrity stands head and shoulders above the existing charity and good causes publicity. 'Infantry' is a stark attention grabber.
We walked away from the talk buzzing with ideas, wordplay and the connections we can make with words and images. There are truly magical things all around us if we can only see them, as Harry muses on one of Alan Fletcher's wondrous thoughts, a take on the Matisse quote, the world is full of flowers if you just have eyes to see.
So whether we're seeing humour in the miscommunication of predictive text, faulty signage, dreams or Schizophrenic road signs, as long as we're seeing, we'll all be enjoying.
Images courtesy of Pentagram, Conundrum answers available here.
