Work | Things I've said...
MiNetwork takes a look at the changing faces of The Podge.
by The Drum
The Podge is an annual lunch founded 17 years ago. Its identities are created by a different shop each year. We review them here, and preview its Northern plans as it heads to Manchester for the very first time.
It was 1994, the design industry was coming out of a bad recession and many big name design groups had gone into liquidation. It might have been considered hugely inappropriate, in that case, to arrange for 30 of the top design heads to meet for a lavish lunch at London’s latest culinary hotspot.
However, the vision for Podge was born by Phil Jones in that very environment. “I thought it would be good to get them in the same room in a relaxed format where they could compare notes,” says Jones.
The venue was the new Terence Conran restaurant Quaglinos and he paid the bill and split it 30 ways. The lunch finished at midnight in the bar and, once everyone had paid their share, they insisted Jones organise it again. Little did he know that 17 years later it would be a highlight in the design calendar.
If you add Design Podge, and the more recently introduced Digital Podge and Sports Podge lunches together there have been 30 meets to date, plus the first one in Sweden last year, one in Amsterdam coming up in the first week in July and, more importantly the first Manchester Stodge Lunch next month on 25 February.
As well as bringing the leaders in the design field together, there have also been two Podge weddings and three Podge babies (that are known about); Sir Peter Blake attended the Sergeant Pepper themed lunch and Alan Fletcher attended the very first Podge lunch in 1994. John Hegarty became Sir John Hegarty the day before he spoke at the French themed lunch - his talk was about his vineyard in France - and a red carpet was rolled between the entrance at The Arts Club and his seat (less than 3 yards).
However, for Jones, the highlight of Podge - a not-for-profit event - has been the support of the design and digital communities every year, “everyone gets completely behind the theme and volunteers to help.”
To keep the “blood fresh” Podge refines its guest list every year to ensure that 30% of those that are invited are new to the lunch.
“The hardest thing every year is putting together the guest list,” says Jones. “I love creating a seating plan that allows people to make new contacts rather than, like at most events, where they sit with people they already know. The key for me is to try and get a balance in the room between the legends of design, digital or sport and the owners of other businesses who are more niche in nature.
“There is no absolute criteria for receiving an invite but I do have a very long memory and there are people who turned down invitations to Podge in the nineties who have never received an invite as it has grown in popularity... and never will.”
Jones is originally from Manchester (a massive Man U fan too), so setting up the first Stodge Lunch at Harvey Nichols on 25 Feb is a home-coming for the event’s founder. And Manchester agencies have been quick to step up to the plate to create the theme and website (Code Computerlove) and photography (Photolink), and the plan, as ever, will be to encourage a different agency to get involved every year.
Jones is now one of the best connected figures in the industry, but has Podge been his making?
“The funny thing is that I didn’t start Podge until 1994 and by then I had sold my typesetting business APT after 11 years of continuous growth. I used to organise the APT 5-a-side football tournaments in the eighties and was also a visiting lecturer on typography in colleges around the country. Many of the people I now work with as a non-exec are people who were students at college during that period. At the same time as that I was organising something called “bladdered by fax” for the design community, basically a chain piss up. In those pre-digital days communication was by phone or fax but it became so big we were having the annual get togethers at Camden Palace. The current version, www.bladderedagain.co.uk, is so much easier to organise. And in the middle of all this I was chairman of The Typographic Circle for five years.”
Jones joined Real Time Studio as MD in 1991 with ten staff - one of the first digital agencies in the country, working with the likes of Canon and Diesel. In 2000 it merged with Evans Hunt Scott to become ehsrealtime. It merged later with Brann too. Jones left full time employment in December 2003 as vice chairman of ehsBrann and operations director of around 400 staff.
But how have the dynamics of Podge changed over the years as digital has emerged? And how has the industry (and the lunches) changed since ’94?
“Remarkably it has changed very little. The spirit in the room is always collaborative, the egos are parked at the entrance to whichever venue we choose, the friendships that are made during the course of the lunches often become lifetime friendships (or marriages) and there are always people in the room prepared to put their hands up to offer help.
“The pleasure is always in watching how people interact and seeing relationships develop. I have been very fortunate in my business life in the typographic world and then the digital world and I enjoy giving back to the industry which has given me such a nice life.”