This week sees a new exhibition in the stairwell. The exhibition features Jess De Wahls, who is known as the ‘Enfant Terrible of British textile arts’. She tackles subjects as wide ranging as Misogyny, Objectification and Fetishism in her prolific output.

Originally from Berlin, Jess creates incredibly intricate embroideries as well as hand-sewn relief portraits from up cycled clothing, a technique for which she has coined the term ‘Retex-Sculpture’. Encouraging social change and gender equality, exploring Feminism and embracing recycling and reuse are paramount to her practice.

Her extensive body of work has been exhibited internationally, featured online as well as in print and is rapidly gaining appreciation within and outside the Textile Art scene. In addition to her own practice, Jess also acts as mentor to the finalists of the prestigious Hand & Lock London embroidery price. She also frequently teaches embroidery workshops at the Soho Theatre as well as at Laura Lea Design.

Ever since the first Air Max released in 1987, it has been the most iconic, influential and revolutionary sports shoe in history. In 2014, Air Max Day was introduced by Nike to celebrate Air Max and its vast history, and falls on March 26th every year. It’s a special year this year, not only for the Air Max turning 30, but also for W+K; the first TV and print ads for the Air Max 1 – ‘Revolution’ having been created by W+K Portland in 1987.

To celebrate this special year, we created an installation of 30 bespoke fly-posters, pasted up on the Truman Brewery Wall, Hanbury Street, from Friday the 24th March in time for Air Max Day on Sunday the 26th.

To create the Air Max Day project, our design team ran 2 workshops. The first started with designers sketching the Air Max 1. They then took scissors to classic Futura Bold Condensed typeface and reworked them into a stencil-ised bespoke cut, that reflected our observations of the shoe’s design. This resulted in a full alphabet of Air Max Inspired letters. The second workshop involved taking those letters into 30 individual posters, which together would form this sentence:

One small step for man, one giant JUMP, CRUNCH, BOUNCE, SKIP, SHUFFLE, SQUEAK, SWEEP, SLAM, KICK, FLICK, SPRINT, TRIP, STAMP, BEND, LUNGE, SPROIOIOIOIOIOING, WHAAA?, HOP, TAP, DASH, ZIP, BEEP BEEP, VAULT, FLOP, LEAP, FOR MANKIND. Happy 30th, AIR MAX. Love, Wieden+Kennedy.

We wanted the posters to feel bold, energetic and capture a sense of the revolutionary. Our nod to the shoe that started it all 30 years ago. The posters are currently being pasted up on the Truman Brewery Wall and also showcased on Instagram.