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Podge Lunch

The Podge Lunch didn't have a name when it was conceived 22 years ago over lunch at the Oval cricket club with six design luminaries of the day. I co-owned a typography studio called APT at the time and over lunch it turned out that the only time these people ever met was at awards evenings or when pitching against each other. The idea of sharing knowledge with rivals over lunch was a complete no-no. We spent an afternoon watching cricket, eating, drinking and sharing stories and vowed to do it again the following year.

Then the recession hit!!! And it was 1994 when we came out from our bomb shelters and dared do it again. But this time I gave it a name (The Podge Council) and all six invited one additional person and the trendy new restaurant of the day, Quaglino's, was chosen as our venue. We hired the private room, put the word out and within a week we had 30 leaders in design sitting down to lunch and Podge was born. A few of those luminaries are no longer with us, Alan Fletcher, Marcello Minale and Dave Chaloner but all the rest are alive and kicking and the podge council lives on. We agreed that a different design group would brand the podge council lunch each year, a task in itself.

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/07/21/design-2034-podge-turns-20-designers-imagine-what-industry-will-look-another-20

 

Quaglino's, 1994