Angus and I fell in love with conservas on a road trip around Europe back in 2008. With only our van to prepare food in and on a tight budget, we feasted like kings every day on these cans of delicious fish and seafood that the Europeans do so well.
As well as the tasty fish inside, we loved the way the cans looked on the supermarket shelves. Go into any Portuguese supermarket and you’ll know what I mean. They are all so beautifully designed with colourful, eye-catching design and imagery. There’s a longstanding relationship between the makers of conservas and art across Europe. After all, when your product is hidden inside a can, the best way to grab your customers’ attention is to make the can as visually appealing as possible.
The bright and brilliant cans we picked up on our travels inspired us to create our own unique branding for Sea Sisters and we are still extremely proud of our packaging and the way our cans look both on shop shelves and in the cupboards at home. The creativity that comes with our cans is as much a part of our brand as the fish inside them.
If you saw us on Dragons’ Den recently you’ll know that we had a wobbly moment in front of the panel when it came to some of the numbers. After filming the show Angus and I thought hard about how we could best process the experience of it all; it was such a wild and surreal day!
The answer was to create art. We decided to film our own creative response to the Dragons’ Den show, a surreal spoof of the episode, and set about calling in help from some of our brilliant friends and collaborators.
Chrissy Baxter was first on our list. Chrissy is an old friend who helped us to bring our brand to life back when we started out. She’s an incredibly talented designer and model maker and we knew she would be the one to create the giant Dragons heads we wanted for the video. She made the heads by hand, all from scrap cardboard and recycled materials.
Helen Downing, Jason Underhill and Archie Thomas helped us to film the video, and we called in our friends and family (thanks mum) to join us for filming on the day. We were lucky enough to have use of the amazing space at Bridport’s Oxenbury's Yard. Then animator/illustrator George Roberts put the icing on the cake with his brilliant drawings and psychedelic effects.
The end result was everything we wanted it to be: fun, surreal, full of laughs. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.
Watch it on our homepage.
Chrissy Baxter: @papercutchrisart
George Roberts: georgeroberts.myportfolio.com
Oxenbury's Yard: @oxenburysyard