The Brief
Choose a (British) subject and through careful research define a unique ‘story’ to communicate to a new audience in New York City. Think about the audience: Who would be interested in your subject and why? Think about locations: What areas, neighborhoods or venues could be most relevant?
Concept
Wigan is a town in the North of England and as well as the industrial, coal mining history described by George Orwell in his 1937 book, ‘A Road to Wigan Pier’ it’s also commonly known as the ca-pie-tal city of Great Britain. Every year it hosts the World Pie Eating Championships and the town’s people are even called the ‘pie eaters’, a name which dates back to the 1926 General Miners Strike when Wigan miners were starved back to work before their counterparts in surrounding towns and so were forced, metaphorically, to eat ‘humble pie’. The people of Wigan have their own dialect which is totally unique, being spoken nowhere else in the world and the word ‘slappy’ means a pie sandwich. How did this delicacy evolve? Well, a visit to Wigan will reveal that its townsfolk like to eat ‘on the hoof’ and eating a hot pie as you do a spot of window shopping can be extremely messy and somewhat dangerous too. Hot gravy can stain and burn. So, what better solution than to slap the pie in a barm cake (local term for bread roll) and transform your lunch into a portable and tasty hot dish?
Solution
I have created the Slappy Cart which is a mobile street vendor where the famous Wigan Slappy is sold as a new and unique product on the market. ‘Portable pies’ tells the audience that they will be able to eat this product on the go which is suitable in a busy city like New York. The truck will move around the city releasing its upcoming day’s location the night before on social media.