Summer day out!

So after a busy and exciting few months at The Yard working on 6 brilliant units in Westfield Stratford City we rewarded ourselves with a, slightly late, summer day out!

After a full English on Northcote Road everyone suited up F1 style and took to the race track at Surbiton Raceway for a bit of healthy team competition. Not naming any names but at one point a certain racer (J.E) tried to run a fellow racer off the track (E.D)...luckily the driver in question managed to recover the situation with some excellent maneuvers. Various other incidents occurred with Tesh running head first into the wall of tyres, Caz spinning out several times, and Steve overtaking, at lot.

No need to mention who won, it's not about the winning it's about the taking part..

After heading back to the office in Clapham we toasted the race with a glass of Courvoisier (as you do), put on our glad rags and headed to town. Taking a stroll from Waterloo we stopped for a moment to take in David Chipperfields 'Two Lines' sculpture before popping to the The Trafalgar roof garden as the sun set across town.

This was followed by a bite to eat in Leon before heading to Barrio Central for happy hour and plenty more toasting. The 'DJ' was hit and miss but by that point we didn't seem to mind, one of the team even 'attempted' the moon walk much to the dismay of the surrounding party goers.

I'll leave it there before I say too much but all in all it was a great day, well deserved and now we're on the hunt for our next monster shopping centre! Milan... Sao Paulo...who knows?!

Anon
Designer

Quite possibly the best signage ever?

We stumbled upon this fascia sign the other day whilst planning a new 'What's New tour'. Click to play and watch what we think is quite possibly the best signage we've ever seen. It seems to be an LCD screen behind the fret-cut fascia panel and the electronics on the screen have been programmed to the exact size of the letters! Brilliant.

Posh Nosh

 The Great Eastern Market in Stratford has a great atmosphere with it's quirky mix of more independent style food outlets that all have their own unique style and food offer. The layout of the market encourages customers to weave in and out of the small units and browse away to their hearts content.

Always with a steady flow of customers is Noshers, a smoked salmon and champagne bar with a great traditional feel. A family business running for over 40 years, it's first store is based in Edgware but coming to Stratford it has taken on a whole new look... thanks to the team of course..!

 

Each of the projects we took on at Stratford developed a different style and this is no exception. It uses props like the Fisherman lights by TAF, minnow buckets and crayfish cages in a subtle way to promote the origin of the food. Overall it feels honest, fresh and welcoming.

It must say something about it the fact that on the opening day the big bosses of Westfield spent a good time perched on the Tractor stools celebrating by sampling the delicious fish..whilst we sipped on a well deserved glass of champers! Great day!

Emily De La Haye
Designer

Evening Standard review Rhythm Kitchen

 

Five lucky Londoners are enjoying five fantastic experiences at the new Westfield Stratford City in East London. Our creative couple Ruth and Liam, blog about their amazing day out...

Here is the section about Rhythm Kitchen....

'Moving upstairs to the Café Court we choose Rhythm Kitchen for dinner as there's a great vibe and something smells real good. There's a music area where we press a button and hear a Caribbean tune - and then press again and it's someone laughing. Weird but fun. The Jerk chicken is amazing - Delroy, a local guy who owns the place tells us he's spent seven months perfecting the sauce. It's definitely paid off.
There are a lot of family recipes in the dishes and it's nice to find personal touches that reflect his Caribbean and east London background. It's quite inspirational to hear Delroy's story. You always find you go back to restaurants that serve good food, but perhaps it's just as important for the restaurant to be a fun, welcoming and a happy space, which this is. Rhythm Kitchen has both the good vibes and great food.'

To read more click here

A Tap East toast!

Celebrating the opening of Westfield Stratford City 

We made the journey up to Westfield from Clapham Junction with great anticipation of seeing all our clients stores open for the first time. Upon entering the shopping centre we were greeted by hoards of people - much more than expected, it was so packed we could not move at one point! After weaving our way through the crowds we entered Tap East which is at the far end of the Great Eastern Market for a celebratory toast. 

This was the last of 6 projects we started for Westfield and was turned around in record time (aprox 3 weeks) for the opening. Although not completely finished, as the pumps, vessels and pipes are being fitted for the Microbrewery it was fantastic to sit and enjoy a pint of ale with the team. It was especially exciting to see the logo we’d just designed on the pint glasses! The Microbrewery will be complete in a few weeks time with an official launch and we’ll make sure we are there to test the brew... so we can blog about it of course! 

Carolyne Hill

Graphic Design Director

Our first ever magazine

 

Our new magazine Design Style has been circulating this September and we hope you have enjoyed it! With features on TYC projects and activity, comments on new and exciting design, it's a quick snap shot of what's going on. Look out for the next issue in December! If you would like to be added to the mailing list then just let us know my emailing info@theyardcreative.com