Platform writes:

The Ministry of Stories is an organisation dedicated to the creation of stories by a new storytelling generation.

Inspired by Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia, founded by author Nick Hornby and co-directors Lucy Macnab and Ben Payne, hidden away at the back of Hoxton Street Monster Supplies store, the Ministry of Stories provides a free space for fresh writing by young people. Here in Hoxton they provide workshops and one-to-one mentoring. The services are provided by volunteers: local writers, artists and teachers, all giving their time and talent for free. The MoS is inspired by young people, and aims to inspire them to transform their lives through writing. They work closely with schools, supporting the work of teachers, but their great benefit is that they provide one-to-one mentoring for young people to enjoy imaginative stories, improve language skills, increase abilities in communication, add to social and educational confidence.

Wieden + Kennedy Platform was approached by the MoS to design and fabricate an interactive installation for one of the shelves in their Monster Supplies store.

Following an initial visit to the store we arrived at the idea of sourcing some live, free-range snacks for monsters in need of something to complement the store's existing range of tinned and jarred produce. 

Six hours, some sacking, and a few cuddly toys later, we had managed to capture and package some exotic creatures ready for delivery to the store in preparation for their Friday grand opening.  

The final installation included a collection of packages, some of which were automated in order to provoke and engender a reaction from customers who trigger the installation should they get too close! 

Platform writes:

Thank goodness for sausage sandwiches. We made good use of them mopping our sweaty brows last Wednesday, eagerly anticipating *in mind numbing fear* our Platform agency presentation. 

We kept things short and sweet, mainly discussing a little background about each of us through the use of choice project examples.

Karl Sadler was up first and gave us a little background basically through the medium of some documentaries taken from his projects for Vice/Intel's Creators Project event in London this summer.

It's W+K tradition for new starters to reveal a secret about themselves;

Karl's was, despite being a professional animator and compositor, that he is significantly colour-blind. 

Sitraka was up next, demonstrating his exo skeletal brain conditioning tools to catch flies with chopsticks. I think possibly more disturbing than the sight of an arm being strapped into a Meccano set was his secret that when he was a child he killed a cat with a hammer. 

Andrew Friend, a charming fellow who pleasures himself with fantastical architecture, prompting emotional connections to space and nature, through devices that electrocute the fuck out of you with lightning. Awesome storyteller, but his secret was that in fact the burn marks on his arm were caused from an exploding gas canister rather than his lightning rod.

Gerard pulls up a chair, sits down; "It's too early for me". Taking things in his stride, he discusses and demonstrates his expressions despatcher which, if anyone wishes to have a go first hand, is in our hackspace. Gerard has a thing for Lady Ga Ga.

Rich & Keivor only recently started collaborating together. Apparently they're into standing under waterfalls and blowing their balls with air-mattress inflators amongst other techy contraptions. Rich also likes kicking sausage dogs and Keivor secretly left a kitten under Sitraka's desk.

We rounded off the presentation with a montage we felt inspired us as forward-thinking, post-digital renaissance men.