This Is Not A Newspaper

Commissioned as part of Offset's Celebrating The City campaign, we were asked to create something for South William Street which has been the studio's neighbourhood since the start. A narrow, bustling street lined with bars and coffee shops, we felt some sort of large scale intervention might go unnoticed without a natural viewpoint to frame it. Our idea then was to develop something that could be handed out on the street or in the bars and cafes.

When we first moved into South William street 10+ years ago, it was a very different area, lined with wholesalers and sex shops. We felt the format of a newspaper was a good way to explore the transient nature of the street, both from the perspective of the ephemeral nature of news and also the massive changes in the news industry itself. This led us to the idea that newspapers could be reinvented, as the street could and to the question, why do newspapers have to be full of things that happened rather than things that might happen.

We worked with 10 creative people to write and illustrate a series of articles of imagined futures and creative interpretations for South William street from a number of different angles. The results were presented in a 2 colour, 8 page broadsheet which was handed out on a single day from make-shift vendor booths. And of course there was a website, because all newspapers need a website of they want to stay relevant.