The Eternal Students Of Innovative Design

Luke Powell and Jody Hudson-Powell give their insights to ruth Hamilton on life as part of pentagram, and why they still like to take the long way round on projects

 

Luke Powell and Jody Hudson-Powell’s approach to design has been to come up with a great idea, then teach themselves the skills they might need to bring it to life. This willingness to explore and embrace new technologies has led to an incredibly diverse portfolio of work, and often sees the brothers melding together different processes to reach their final outcome.

In late 2015, the brothers became partners at pentagram, where they’ve been able to apply their unique approach to bigger projects and higher-profile clients. We caught up with the duo after their talk at oFFset Dublin to find out how life has changed since joining the world-leading design consultancy.

Since joining Pentagram, you’ve worked on the identity schemes for a couple of seasons of London Fashion Week (LFW). Where do you start with each season?

Luke Powell: When the project came about they had this need to unify all three of the events [lFW, lFW men’s and lFW Festival] because they were becoming more and more separated – yet they needed their own individual identities. then we have these loose themes that get us kick-started on an idea. last season was ‘discovery’ and this season is a bit more about gender equality.

Jody Hudson-Powell: It has to be fairly loose because it’s an umbrella of so many people doing so many different things. it’s about an energy more than being too topical.

That branding extended across lots of different touchpoints. Were there any applications that worked particularly well?