A day of riddles!

This was the thought-provoking invitation the Grain team and I received from our Directors, prior to our summer team day out. As puzzled as I was, I knew it was going to be a lot of fun – it always is! “Meet at the V&A” was a big clue within the riddle, but I managed to refrain from looking into it, wanting to retain the element of surprise.

I thought “underground” might be something relating to the London Underground, but that would have been too obvious, plus I wasn’t sure a trip along the Central Line would justify a day away from our desks. So that idea was ruled out.

Well, my attempts at guessing weren’t even close… The first stop was an exhibition at the V&A called Undressed: a brief history of underwear, pertaining to the riddle “inside out,” which I realised, relates to Grain’s intimate approach to branding – how we like to get underneath the surface of a client’s brand to obtain an accurate understanding of who they are, to be able to approach the project effectively. The show was very interesting, educational and at times (for the more childish adults such as myself) quite amusing. The exhibition explored the interesting historic relationship between underwear and fashion and the extent to which it has influenced what we choose to wear today. It seems that underwear used to be a purely functional commodity which would cover most of the body, and slowly over the years it has become a lot smaller and a more fashionable item with sexual associations. It made my eyes water to see what women would put themselves through in order to achieve that “perfect” figure by wearing these tiny corsets which over time, would physically change the shape of their bodies – there was even one for pregnant women!

Before solving the next riddle, we were presented with a mini task. We had 40 minutes in which to find something “upside down” (or just unusual) en route to our next activity, which you would think in London wouldn’t be very hard – but it was! Here are a few examples what we found.

Left: Elodie and I came across a millinery with some very unusual fascinators.

Middle: A Pokémon toy (quite a hot topic at the moment!)

Right: A postbox only for people taller than 10ft.

Then the next part of the riddle: “with eyes wide shut.” For those of you who haven’t heard of Dans Le Noir, it is a restaurant where you dine in complete darkness and the waiters are blind. It is an amazing experience which forces your other senses to come shake off the dust. Pouring a glass of water and knowing when it’s full, knowing where your food is located on your plate, responding to your friend’s vocal rather than facial expressions: these are all things that we don’t usually give a second thought to. Drinks were spilt, food was dropped and we ended up using our hands to eat, as using cutlery was virtually impossible. Every movement you usually make without much consideration, suddenly required all of your focus and had to be slowed down in order not to spill or break anything. It was insightful, a lot of fun and a great place to go for a team exercise or just as a group of friends.

Restaurant front (this is the last time we would see daylight for a couple of hours):

Inside the restaurant:

The evening ended “underground” in a quirky bar called The Breakfast Club in Spitalfields. I spotted a fridge standing just next to the bar which I assumed was full of drinks, until the door swung open by itself and somebody casually walked out of it. Turns out it’s a door to their bar downstairs. Our senior designer Juli had the bright idea to make a video which somehow incorporated both the fridge and team. Here’s what silliness we came up with – enjoy!