Beach London is something of a creative laboratory; combining an agency, a shop and an art gallery within four walls. We chatted with founder Charlie Hood about injecting colour, creating unforgettable experiences and most importantly; having fun.
So first off tell us a bit about you, who you are and what you do?
My name's Charlie Hood, I run Beach London with a little help from illustrator extraordinaire Rob Flowers and my mad dog, Merv. I like cycling, skateboarding, making stuff and cheese and crackers.
You're a shop, an agency and a gallery. What was first and how did the others come about?
The shop definitely came first and everything else evolved from it. We started off as a kind of lurk-space, where people could buy a coffee and flick through mags, zines, books and things. Gradually we started working with local agencies and helping them find creative talent. Now we do a lot of work directly for brands so we've evolved quite a bit! We try and concentrate on jobs where we can inject colour and fun, and we bring some amazing artists along with us.
What's the best brief you've ever received?
We did an exhibition with Red Bull last year for the launch of Julio Bashmore's album 'Knockin' Boots' - which was produced at Red Bull's Studios. It was great fun, they let us do whatever crazy stuff we wanted. We ended up making 'Bashmore Chicken' - a pop-up to celebrate his love for chicken. We're working on some more cool stuff with him this year. Expect more chicken.
You guys work across lots of different mediums. Do you have a preferred one?
No, not at all. Again, we try to make everything fun or else not bother. I think events are what we enjoy the most. When you see it all come together it's a nice feeling as well as being able to let your hair down and celebrate with the people that made it happen.
We absolutely love your Creative Mess phone cases, tell us a bit more about the collaboration!
That was cool! Ant, who runs Creative Mess, actually has the manufacturing equipment so it wasn't a case of sending off a design and needing to get a million pieces made up, we had a lot of freedom. It's cool to test stuff out like this.
Creative Mess x Beach London
What are your plans for 2016? What would you like to explore?
Gallery-wise we have some cool shows coming up. We're doing a collaborative show with the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic from Cornwall who have just had a Saatchi rebrand, and a show with Camden Town Brewery which will involve us brewing beer on the premises.
Slant Piece by Donald Judd
What's your all-time favourite piece of creative work?
One that immediately comes to mind is Slant Piece by Donald Judd which is on display at the awesome DIA: Beacon in New York. It looks like a sheet of wood stood upright, but as you approach it there's another sheet of wood leaning off it. The whole thing really throws you off-balance, quite literally, I like work like that.
Beach London February 2nd, 2017, late afternoon
Rad ;)