The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 1 billion people, nearly one in six of the world's population suffer from neurological disorders that include Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease with some 6.8 million dying every year consequently.
We were working with the Taconic Bioscience's marketing team when the significance of these statistics took on a face and name we knew. The father of one of our team was diagnosed with dementia and in that instant, the brief was no longer about target audiences and demographics. It was about someone we knew. Someone, we loved.
Taking inspiration from the poppy worn as a symbol of remembrance and the colour and vibrancy of PET scans, we began work with an Irish ceramist and quickly found parallels between atherosclerosis, or porcelain aorta and the materials at our disposal.
From that came a collection of handcrafted porcelain broaches. Each unique. Each fitted with a surgical pin. Each designed to subtly deteriorate - a living metaphor for the condition itself.
They were given to scientists and partners as a quiet but profound reminder: behind every experiment, every data point, every breakthrough - there's a person. A life. A reason.
Bespoke Ceramic Broaches
