Monday 6/20

Hello week 3! We started the week off with a visit to Michael Johnson’s studio, where he spoke on the value of big ideas. He shared some of his biggest projects that he’s worked on, all of them relating to a different topic which kept the presentation very interesting. After we wrapped up and said our goodbyes, we headed to The Pepper Tree, where I had the best food of the entire trip. The food was beyond amazing and everyone that worked there was exceptionally sweet. Not giving our bodies a second to digest, we headed to the park across the street where we played catch for a little before we had to catch the tube to our second presentation of the day with Studio Moross. I really enjoyed how collaborative their design process and work environment was. The work they produced was very up my alley with all the fun colors and experimental designs.

Tuesday 6/21

Lucky me! I got to visit the Central Saint Martins ASL exhibit for a second time, but this time around with the whole group. This was the most vast and impressive exhibition I had ever been to so I was really happy to get a lot of time to roam from room to room.

Wednesday 6/22

Hooray, it’s Wednesday! My favorite day of the week, or at least in London it is. Today was the long-awaited Noble Rot Lunch, and it was definitely worth the hype. I tried escargot for the first time, and ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would. We enjoyed a nice wine called Chin Chin that had a gorgeous, well-designed label on it. I really cherished the group lunches we were able to have and felt super grateful for all the amazing food I was able to try, and in good company which made it even more enjoyable. After lunch, we visited the White Cube Gallery, each room looking more pristine and perfect than the next. There were huge photographs by Andreas Gursky on display, and the size of each piece was so grandiose that the many details within them couldn’t go unnoticed. I was really drawn to his style and loved how vibrant the colors in his works were. Later that day, I grabbed dinner with my cousin, Sofia, who is a very talented animator and lives in London. The two of us met up with Colette and Emma at Blues Kitchen for some live jazz to end the night. 

Thursday 6/23

We started our day with a visit to MagCulture, a shop that sells only magazines, and houses over 600 different titles at a time. The owner, Jerry, lived and breathed all things magazines. I found it really sweet how he got so excited just by talking about them, his passion for his job was very evident and that made for a great presentation.

We spent our afternoon at the Barbican to see their art exhibit titled “Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain (1945-1965)”. The emotional influence that the war had on these artists was very evident in many of their works and it was interesting to see their feelings in a visual manner.

Friday 6/24

We ended week 3 with a trip to the V&A museum. They had a really cool photography exhibit on display and I felt very drawn to many of them. They had an ominous feel to them that made me want to know the context in which they were taken. I made sure to jot down some names of the photographers so I could look into their work more when I got home. We roamed around the rest of the museum and I was genuinely in shock at the amount of artifacts they had, all in what seemed to be perfect condition.

Emma, Colette and I enjoyed a nice lunch following our V&A visit and roamed around a few bookstores before heading back to the Art Workers Guild for our presentation with Peter Saville. His knowledge was incredibly vast and hearing about all the famous brands he had worked with was fascinating. After a jam packed week, we headed back to our flats to rest up for our early Saturday morning wake up. 

Saturday 6/25

After a 2 hour bus ride we made it to Oxford for our day trip! Considering I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, I was really looking forward to visiting the University where a lot of the scenes were filmed. The architecture of the entire town was amazing and we were lucky enough to have weather that was perfect for walking around. One of the stores we walked into had a deck of vintage cards that were not only green (my favorite color), but they also said “SAB” on them. I had been searching for a cool deck of cards for a while now and felt like this deck was made for me.

We spent a few hours in the Oxford Botanical Gardens which were so vibrant and serene. I saw so many plants that I had never seen before in my life, one of them being a black succulent. That night, we had an amazing dinner at a quaint tavern that made the best halloumi fries I’ve ever tasted. Justin ordered fish and chips, they were so generous with the portion size that the fish was basically overflowing off the plate. Our day trip to Oxford was perfect, even if we didn’t get to do the one thing everyone told us we HAD to do: punting. 

Sunday 6/26

Emma and I spent the better part of the day at a brewery that was in close proximity to our flats to work on our Wunderman Thompson brief. I ordered Halloumi fries as my fuel, I guess you could say I was addicted to them at this point. Although these didn’t compare to the ones I had in Oxford, they were still pretty yummy.