From Paper to Parliament

On Wednesday the 16th May I was invited to attend a meeting at the Houses of Parliament as part of the first ever National Sweet Pepper Awareness Day. The event saw the Pepper Technology Group (an association representing all the sweet pepper growers in the country) and their mascot, Pippa the Pepper, delivering a box of fresh red peppers to the Commons kitchen. You may be wondering at this stage what Media Street, a website design, development and marketing company, have to do with peppers, well let me explain:

Last year the PTG chairman Gary Taylor approached Media Street asking us to create an online presence for the group consisting of a brand new website, logo and a mascot that could be the face of the group as well as some print media (booklets and recipe cards) and a banner for the various shows they attend. The website was launched last year and with it, new mascot Pippa the Pepper was born; she can be found at the bottom of each page offering interesting pepper facts and general tips and tricks.

This year, in preparation for the National Sweet Pepper Awareness Day, the group decided that they would commission well known costume designer Sally Preisig to turn Pippa from a moving 2D image to a life size 3D version. The resulting costume is very impressive with Sally managing to create an exact replica of the design found on the website.

With Pippa finished and ready to be unleashed on the world Media Street were invited to see her in action. As well as delivering the box of peppers the event also included a small tour of the Houses of Parliament (where I noticed some of the booklets we designed had made thier way on to the House of Commons canteen) and a meeting with MPs Charles Walker, Roger Halfon and Eleanor Laing.

Pippa, having gone from paper to Parliament in less than a year, is now somewhat of a celebrity in the world of peppers!