Art of Victory

Posted by Nell Mead at 08:00 on 27 Sep 2010

When you start a blog, as I've discovered, you get a bit obsessive about it.  You want everyone to read it, so you tell everyone about it.

(I think everyone I've ever met has now been sent a link to this website, though I can't be sure they've all taken time to come and have a look!)

Naturally, you hope that they will read what you've written with interest, and hopefully comment.  I'm getting some comments and questions - which I'm delighted with; please write more! - but not always about the erudite, witty and informative content.  No, the majority of the compliments I've received in person are to do with how lovely it looks, so maybe it's about time I explained the ideas behind the design.

When I first came up with the name "Victory" it was because I wanted to appeal to a crowd who self-identify as winners (this is really important, actually, as it's the first step towards winning).  But then I started to think about styling, and I started to have images in my head of VE Day, in 1945.  My grandfather, Nigel Henderson, was an artist and photographer who took pictures of everyday life in the East End of London during and after the war.  The photograph accompanying this post, and many like it, were a part of my childhood.

Both my parents went to art school; my father Andrew was a graphic designer and signwriter whose vintage-style pub signs were piled deep in his workshop-cum-garage at home.  (Remember those fibreglass, gilded trees that used to hang outside Crabtree & Evelyn shops?  Dad made those at home.)  Who better to design my logo?  Thanks Dad!

And then there were all the childhood trips.  I was obsessed as a child with the Robert Opie Museum in Gloucester, my bedroom plastered with posters advertising Bovril, Cadbury's Chocolate and Colman's Mustard.  Sadly, the museum has now closed, though Opie's collection is now on show at the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in London.  So part of the inspiration for Victory's post-WW2 look - and lots of the images - came from Opie's Wartime Scrapbook. 

All in all, I think the brief I threw at the lovely Helen from Shiny Ideas was pretty tough! But fortunately she's as much of a fan of the vintage look as I am, and she's taken my ideas and raised them to a whole new level.  I'm so pleased by the look of this blog - and even more excited with the rest of the website she's come up with.  But I'm saving that as a treat for later - it'll be unveiled shortly before Victory opens its doors... Watch this space, is all I'm saying!