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Pick a project, any project
More About Me
THE ACID HOUSE SMILEY MAN
Reinstating Acid House Heritage with George Georgiou George Georgiou gave British rave culture its iconic yellow smiley face in the late 80s. Now he’s placing heritage club plaques, where the hardcore clubbers sweated till dawn, for the iconic nights he designed for.
This ongoing passion project with George started back in 2022 with the goal of building his online presence.
This was initially approached through driving awareness to his ‘GG Reborn’ digital artwork collection.
A series of exclusive newer designs we worked on and brought to life with him, through the elevation of his work into the digital realm, through motion.
Resulting in a suite of 50 animated digital artworks for raver fans to collect and share:
The collection pays homage to the acid rave era, with an emphasis on colourful psychedelic visuals, bought to life with stabby strobe aniamtions. All in collaboration with George himself.
We continued to boost his profile through a documentary style short-film we worked on, alongside cultural powerhouses VICE - documenting his influence on these early days of the UK rave scene:
The next step for the project: a PR stunt.
We then turned eyes back to what made him so synonymous with the acid house movement in the first place - the sites of these famous old London rave venues which he was designing for.
To immortalise these clubs, we unveiled the yellow Acid House Heritage Plaques.
A temporary real-life installation at locations where now-shuttered venues such as Sin, Shoom and Velvet Underground once stood.
Members of the public can visit those sites using the interactive map we fixed on his website.
The installation, which serves as a reminder of how much the capital and its club culture have changed since the heyday of acid house, was witnessed by ‘Ibiza Four’ stalwarts Nicky Holloway and Danny Rampling, who joined the pilgrimage across London to take a trip down memory lane.
The plaques were scannable, taking you directly to his entire body of work, the virtual George Georgiou Gallery.
A digital experience that showcases the classic flyers for his club nights of the '80s and '90s.
As covered by the likes of Mixmag, Culted, The Guardian and others, when speaking about the George Georgiou MetaGallery, George himself said:
"By bringing my flyer designs to the metaverse I want to show younger generations how much history there is in this music, and hopefully give them something inspiring on their own. The gallery space features all my best work, previously only in physical form, and I'm so excited to see it come to life digitally, in such a spectacular way."
Georgiou's iconic yellow smiley face has its origins in a flyer that he created in January ‘88 for his his friend Danny Rampling's club night, Shoom. It has since become a key symbol in the growth of acid house, and was also used as an emblem of rave culture by media in the '90s as they sought to negatively present the scene in news bulletins and articles.
The launch of the gallery and the temporary installation coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Criminal Justice Bill, which was introduced to curb the growth of illegal raves. This was the first piece of legislation that proscribed a specific genre of music — rave music, “wholly or predominantly categorised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”. Despite widespread demonstrations against the seemingly draconian power-grab by UK authorities, in ‘94 the Bill became law but the scene continues to grow to this day.
All discussed in this case study is housed on a custom built website, which includes George’s early poster designs, the history of his journey, and a bonus online store to sell physical prints and other collateral coming soon. Including an exclusive record design and sticker packs. See the various collateral mentioned below.
This ongoing passion project with George started back in 2022 with the goal of building his online presence.
This was initially approached through driving awareness to his ‘GG Reborn’ digital artwork collection.
A series of exclusive newer designs we worked on and brought to life with him, through the elevation of his work into the digital realm, through motion.
Resulting in a suite of 50 animated digital artworks for raver fans to collect and share:
The collection pays homage to the acid rave era, with an emphasis on colourful psychedelic visuals, bought to life with stabby strobe aniamtions. All in collaboration with George himself.
We continued to boost his profile through a documentary style short-film we worked on, alongside cultural powerhouses VICE - documenting his influence on these early days of the UK rave scene:
The next step for the project: a PR stunt.
We then turned eyes back to what made him so synonymous with the acid house movement in the first place - the sites of these famous old London rave venues which he was designing for.
To immortalise these clubs, we unveiled the yellow Acid House Heritage Plaques.
A temporary real-life installation at locations where now-shuttered venues such as Sin, Shoom and Velvet Underground once stood.
Members of the public can visit those sites using the interactive map we fixed on his website.
The installation, which serves as a reminder of how much the capital and its club culture have changed since the heyday of acid house, was witnessed by ‘Ibiza Four’ stalwarts Nicky Holloway and Danny Rampling, who joined the pilgrimage across London to take a trip down memory lane.
The plaques were scannable, taking you directly to his entire body of work, the virtual George Georgiou Gallery.
A digital experience that showcases the classic flyers for his club nights of the '80s and '90s.
As covered by the likes of Mixmag, Culted, The Guardian and others, when speaking about the George Georgiou MetaGallery, George himself said:
"By bringing my flyer designs to the metaverse I want to show younger generations how much history there is in this music, and hopefully give them something inspiring on their own. The gallery space features all my best work, previously only in physical form, and I'm so excited to see it come to life digitally, in such a spectacular way."
Georgiou's iconic yellow smiley face has its origins in a flyer that he created in January ‘88 for his his friend Danny Rampling's club night, Shoom. It has since become a key symbol in the growth of acid house, and was also used as an emblem of rave culture by media in the '90s as they sought to negatively present the scene in news bulletins and articles.
The launch of the gallery and the temporary installation coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Criminal Justice Bill, which was introduced to curb the growth of illegal raves. This was the first piece of legislation that proscribed a specific genre of music — rave music, “wholly or predominantly categorised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”. Despite widespread demonstrations against the seemingly draconian power-grab by UK authorities, in ‘94 the Bill became law but the scene continues to grow to this day.
All discussed in this case study is housed on a custom built website, which includes George’s early poster designs, the history of his journey, and a bonus online store to sell physical prints and other collateral coming soon. Including an exclusive record design and sticker packs. See the various collateral mentioned below.