Soul has commissioned London artist Kate Philipson, aka Leopard’s Lunch, to create a series of striking murals to decorate the agency’s office interior. The artwork, entitled “Bubbling with Creativity, Oozing with Soul,” has a bold, pop art style that brings much needed colour and life to the Soul office. The brief was to liven up the Soul workspace (located on the top floor of Farringdon’s historic Zeppelin building) with artwork that was contemporary, colourful, playful and emotive. Inspired by Soul’s eye shaped logo and the agency’s love of music (an important influence and source of inspiration for Soul’s founding partners), Kate’s bespoke designs interweave the James Brown song lyrics “I know you got Soul, because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be in here,” into the artwork.
“I chose bold colours to compliment and match the decor, and included a rose gold to add a metallic sheen”
The work has been hand painted on the walls in every area of the office. Even the agency toilet, which has been transformed into a colourful disco bog, incorporating musical references on the doors. This even extends to safety signage, with a reference to Pink Floyd’s “Is there anybody out there?” from The Wall, emblazoned on the exit door, warning users to open the door carefully. A bold comedic touch we think.
Shaun Moran, Creative Director at Soul, said: “We chose to work with Kate because of her unique, bold illustration style. The brief was to be playful yet remain human, to reflect our values at Soul. Her grasp of what we were trying to achieve resulted in popping colour and striking imagery which has captured the mood we wanted to create perfectly. The burst of fun and colour that greets you now, when you arrive at our offices, shows we’re an independent agency with our own look and voice. Choose us, you get Soul.”
“There were 7 surfaces to cover, from a meeting room wall to toilet doors, so there was plenty of scope for creativity”
Kate Philipson herself, added: “This has been a fun project and I’m really pleased with the results. Soul have been great to work with from start to finish, the brief was very open so gave me a lot of scope for creativity and I think the final design represents what Soul stands for. The job was not without it’s challenges - the quirky layout of the office means there aren’t many open flat walls to paint. However with a bit of creative thinking I was able to incorporate depth changes, pipes and wall furniture into the artwork.”
In addition to the mural artwork, Soul will be using Kate’s designs in digital form as part of their printed collateral. You can also, of course, find them scattered about this very page.
“The brief was to be contemporary, colourful, playful and human, and to include eyes and a nod to music”
