Pick Me Up 2016

Here at Parade we’re a big fan of Pick Me Up London, so back in April we decided to take an annual day out of the office to let off some steam and admire some of the impressive and diverse work on show at Somerset House. Plus, the nostalgic smell of print (you all know the one) is enough to keep us coming back year after year. 

This year was particularly exciting as letterpress guru Alan Kitching was exhibiting ‘A Life in Letterpress’. The exhibition was bold and insightful, with sketchbooks showing his process as well as equipment from his own studio. To our surprise he was also serving on the till, chatting, signing work and even doing live letterpress demos. Starstruck alert! Meeting influential designers and artists in real life can only be compared to bumping into your favourite celebrity in Starbucks, we don’t know how Claire kept her cool when meeting Milton Glaser in New York! 

Back for another year was the Peso Press, a print based machine combining new processes with traditional ones, proving that print isn’t dead! This year the press allowed visitors to design their own glyph based print for just £5 (bargain), as well as this there was a host of interactive activities and workshops that allowed you to get your hands dirty!

There was a great variety of bold and bright work on show this year and we couldn’t stop gazing at the pastel coloured, glittery sign work of Daisy Emerson on a range of materials from tins to wooden planks. We could definitely see one of her pieces on the wall here at Parade. The animation and brightly framed illustration work of Jack Sachs was also pretty cool!

Just as enjoyable as the exhibition was the gift shop, stocked with a great range of interesting books, stationery and lots of little things that you have no use for but totally need anyway. We left the exhibition feeling a little overwhelmed by all the lovely print and design and stumbled out of the gift shop armed with lots of inspiration and a minor dent in our bank balances. 

All in all, we had a great day at Pick Me Up and it’s fair to say the experience made us want to go home and get hands on with some ink and a squeegee. We’d massively recommend an annual trip to Pick Me Up, we promise it won’t disappoint.