Sketchbook TV - Bompas & Parr

Sketchbook TV - coming soon, Bompas & Parr

I was at Sketchbook HQ yesterday. after going along to a shoot where we interviewed Njide Ugboma of 'Let Them Eat Cake' mag. They had such a lovely office space, very chilled out, and being a new quarterly, they've done super well for themselves, which is inspiring for us Sketchbook folk.

Back at HQ, I managed to see a edited cut of our Bompas & Parr event coverage and it was very exciting. The work of our amazing editor, Rob Dixon, continues to amaze me and it's great to have a working environment where everyone can put their individual creative mark on things. (Image below from Bompas & Parr website)

Super times - Sketchbook TV & Bompas & Parr

Ok so I had a pretty rad time yesterday and I'm rather marveling at the chance at having gone.

Firstly I had a meeting with Sketchbook to have a look at a couple of videos that had been edited, one of Anna Fayemi's shoot and another with Yang Du. Oh and wasn't it marvelous chaps! it really was very cool to see how the editing literally transforms these disjointed shots into a narrative and done with flair and creativity. I so love working with creative people like this, it's so inspiring. I can't come up with said creativity myself, I reserve it for strange passages of prose like verse (is there such a thing, I hear you ask?) So that was awesome and it means Sketchbook TV will be going live rather soon!

But the main event of the day - or rather night - was the Bompas and Parr Punchbowl with Courvoisier. We didn't know what to expect after reading that this punchbowl would be big enough to serve 25 000 people! Needless to say it wasn't a bowl per se, but rather a something more rectangle - like a pool basically. I came to realise that the logistics of having a giant bowl which everyone could walk around or something was probably damn hard and then there's always those darn healthy and safety issues, non? People could 'row' across it on an orange slice shaped raft by pulling themselves along with a rope. Very cool though I'd wager I'd fall in. And everyone had to wear hair nets and aprons etc; it had a bizarre Charlie and Chocolate Factory feel to it, and the venue being 33 Portland Place, it set a nice 'high culture' feel. On that note, I must say it was the first time I've consciously come to appreciate the culture of drinking - and I mean the culture, not the 'let's get smashed' attitude that reduces one to idiocy but rather the idea of coming together, taking your time to sample such flavours and concoctions etc etc; I mean I've always fancied the dinner party feel over the city bar feel, where you could have a large bowl of punch and just while away the evening playing cards or all debating - or networking. And I sampled the punch myself (how could I not?) and though I was convinced I wouldn't like something like it, I actually did, though it was rather strong.

And these kinds of experiences don't come along all the time, so definitely grateful I got a chance to experience it - thanks to Sketchbook! Here's to more events like it *raises phantom glass of punch*