Yinka Ilori hooks up with Hand & Lock for digital embroidery session at Apple

Date
10 May 2019

Wednesday night on Regent Street and It’s Nice That has trekked down Oxford Street – braving both the bag-toting hordes of tourists and the weather – to the Apple Store.

We’re not here to putz about on a top-of-the-line iPhone, though. It wasn’t even an excuse to gawp at the sort of massive-screened iMacs we only usually see when we’re allowed to gawp around the studio of a premiere league graphic designer.

No, we were there to think about identity. More specifically, we were there to think about how we can thread our identity into a massive work of embroidery overseen by Yinka Ilori and Hand & Lock.

The interactive session was undertaken as part of the Californian tech giant’s globe-spanning Today at Apple series of events, tying in with this year’s London Craft Week.

The idea was simple: with the guidance of Yinka and the team at embroidery specialists Hand & Lock, attendees could produce their own ‘digital tile’ using a series of specially-created virtual brushes.

Some of the tiles made on the night will find themselves being used in a massive work set to debut at the Bangkok Craft Week in February 2020.

“Apple came up with the brief of a piece about identity,” says Hand & Lock’s Jessica Pile. “We met a few times and researched into our identities and wanted to make an amalgamation of those things. He’s of Nigerian-British heritage, and we’re a company with a very British history, so it just made sense.”

Yinka tells us. “There’s been an increase in interest in craftsmanship. We don’t just want to be fed knowledge. We’re interested in process how things are made.”

Which might have explained why the session was such a success. Events are taking place over the entire city this weekend to celebrate the fifth edition of London Craft Week. Head here to find out more about what’s going on.

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(Via Apple)

Above

(Via Apple)

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(Via Apple)

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About the Author

Josh Baines

Josh Baines joined It's Nice That from July 2018 to July 2019 as News Editor, covering new high-profile projects, awards announcements, and everything else in between.

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