THIS WAY UP was a physical exhibition, sales space and workshop developed by Unity to tell the story of 15 years of British Council commissions, exhibitions and special projects.

It took place in London’s Shoreditch as part of the official London Design Festival, September 17th – 24th 2011.

Unity developed the project from the ground up - initiating the idea, developing, building and running the experience, producing all collateral, hosting the launch event and amplifying across traditional and social media.

The initial objective was to raise £2,000 from the sale of items archived over the last 15 years from previous British Council projects. There was no exhibition or experience conceived, merely a desire to raise money for a trust fund.

Unity identified an opportunity tell stories around the projects that the British Council has undertaken around the world through the development of a retrospective exhibition where all pieces were for sale.

On indentifying the opportunity to create an experience, exhibition and sale, Unity in collaboration with the British Council and PAN Studio undertook the following:

Idea conception & development; Venue sourcing; Experiential build; Collateral design; Event Production; Merchandising & Sales; Staffing; Launch; Amplification.

THIS WAY UP was held in a disused 3000 sq ft space in London’s Shoreditch. The venue was split into three separate areas to best tell the story and sell the stock:

Area 1 hosted the exhibition pieces – the commissioned works from the last 15 years created by leading designers such as Michael Marriott, Tom Dixon, Pearson Lloyd and Tord Boontje.

Area 2 operated as a workshop for a competitive up-cycling challenge amongst young designers, the majority of which were students from Goldsmiths College.

Area 3 was a sales space offering tools, posters, technological items and exhibition ephemera. A completely up-cycled bookshop was created from the crates previously used to store the exhibition pieces.

An identity was developed with PAN Studio that worked to explain the key aspects of THIS WAY UP - progress, travel and storage.

Thematically all collateral borrowed from these themes to help tell the story of past commissions, the international nature of the British Council’s work and the idea of developing talent.

Unity embarked on a comprehensive editorial campaign, engaging art, design, fashion and entertainment press. The campaign was three-tiered with press approached prior to the exhibition opening for listings, post opening for reviews and pre-launch event to ensure attendance.

The outreach across both traditional and social media networks resulted in a reach in excess of 7,000,000, through key editorial environments including Design Week, ICON, The Guardian and Wonderland.

The collaboration with the British Council and the involvement of Goldsmiths College enabled Unity to utilise both institutions communications channels.

The British Council engaged their social media network to proactively promote the project whereas Goldsmiths reached out to its students as part of recruitment drive for the staffing of the project.

Unity created a Twitter profile and reached out to architecture, design and fashion influencers before and during the exhibition to promote key objects and create awareness across these communities. Re-tweets and mentions were gained, extending the spread of THIS WAY UP awareness.

Results: Editorial reach in excess of 7,000,000; Social media reached beyond 80,000; Fundraising in excess of £4,500; 1,300 visits; 350 attended the launch event.