When planning our team days our priority is to make space and time for us to be able to be together, hang out and have fun!. We’re a team of passionate innovators and creators and we’re always looking for new ways to unlock and inspire our creativity. This summer’s team day did exactly that!
First stop took us to Leake Street Arches - a forever moving and changing artistic space, a subterranean art hub and graffiti gallery under Waterloo Station in London. The walls of Leake Street are decorated with graffiti, murals, and street art created by artists from around the world, from all walks of life. The art is ever-changing, with some pieces lasting only a couple of hours, while others are enjoyed and appreciated for months.
The team had the pleasure of teaming up with Artist in Residence, Marc Craig, teaching us technique, explaining the history of the space and helping us to unlock our inner artists. Not only is Marc passionate about sharing his skills, knowledge and time during the Leake Street graffiti workshops, he is also incredibly passionate about nature and conservation, what a perfect match to our REAL values!
In June 2024 he wanted to create a project that would connect people around the globe in what he feels like is an ever increasingly polarised environment. From that he created his current project " The Ark of Extinction". This uses his incredible street art to raise awareness and drive action to saving endangered species. Inspired by the critically endangered Vaquita porpoise in Mexico, of which only 6 remaining animals were counted in May 2024, Marc is creating artworks of endangered species from around the globe in his signature black and white doodle style. Be certain to find out more of this project by clicking here, and make sure to head down to Leake Street to check it out for yourself!
One thing that surprised the team was the speed at which some of the artists of Leake Street work. Due to the evolving nature of the space, Marc explained that speed was a priority for artists. We were expecting that some of the larger artworks, over 6m long and 3m high, would have taken a number of days to complete, but in fact, they were completed in only a few hours. It’s all about the preparation! Preparing sketches, outlines and even using projectors and scaffolding to assist, it is incredible how quickly an impactful piece can be created
Next stop was Silo, the world's first zero waste restaurant based in Hackney Wick.
We were fortunate enough to be given an incredible, behind the scenes tour from the team there, as they took us through how they manage to deliver exceptional service and Michelin Star quality food without owning a single bin!
As experts in fermentation, we took huge amounts of inspiration from the experience at Silo. They are fellow fermenters that use wonderful techniques to ferment for flavour, taking food waste from the restaurant and creating something delicious out of it.
Their fermentatrium sits at the heart of the restaurant and they describe it as “a cupboard full of emerging dreams and an anvil cell for diamonds of flavour”.
Vegetable trim, cheese rinds and excess dairy all hold leading roles in this showcase of what can be created when we reconsider waste as a resource. The input is ‘waste’, salt and time. The output is complex, layered flavour in the form of garums - both the seasoning and the foundation to many of their most successful dishes.
What we can say is that the tour was engaging, inspiring and every single one of us will be going back for some delicious food!
Our final stop was Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park where we had a friendly game of rounders. Obviously, this was a day built on team building and bonding so OF COURSE, none of our highly creative and passionate team got competitive…
It’s safe to say, we could all do with a refresh on the rules of rounders and one or two of us aren’t quite as agile as we thought we were. That being said, there were some pretty impressive swings and everyone had a good belly laugh!
The day rounded off (excuse the pun) at Crate Brewery where the team spent the evening sat by the river, catching up and enjoying each other’s company.
REAL summer team day = One great big success! 🥂