The Tooth & Claw Store

The client

Little Green Pig (LGP) is an education and mentoring charity based in Brighton and Hove, offering free creative writing workshops to children and young people, aged seven to 18.

The brief

We were asked to transform an unused classroom into a mythical creatures pet shop, as voted by the pupils at City Academy Whitehawk, complete with a shop identity. The ‘shop’ was used to host a series of children’s writing workshops for pupils, spanning Reception to Year 6, all based around the mythical creatures theme.

Project challenges

The temporary space had to be believable as a ‘real’ mythical creatures pet shop (albeit with an incredibly small budget for the build) and had to be robust enough to last for the 12 week-long residency. Enhancing the space with lighting, sound and smell was also part of the brief and we had to work around fittings such as strip lights, and tables bolted to the walls around two sides of the room.

What we delivered

Introducing The Tooth & Claw Store. A cardboard box wall offered an affordable, easy-to-construct, 3D solution to create the illusion of shelving. A mixture of real and silhouette objects – sprayed on using lazer cut stencils – was used to fill the shelves, whilst interchangeable product labels were attached using Velcro tabs.

We secured permission from Norwegian band War Druna to use part of their track, ‘Uruk’, which contains a growling sound, to play to the children, to create atmosphere. Straw bails created a musty pet shop smell, and cut-out holes in some of the boxes allowed the children to feel mysterious objects.

The identity inspired the client to create a backstory, and video, about the shop’s owner Mrs Claw, to immerse the children in the concept before their workshops commenced.

You can watch Little Green Pig’s video (directed by Lucas Orme) about the project, below.

Media Coverage

The Tooth & Claw Store was featured in The Argus newspaper, Teach Primary magazine and Giving Times.

What the clients says

“We have been continually impressed by your professionalism, creativity, patience and warmth. The creative team produced a stunning design pack which exceeded our expectations and the extra ideas and support from Rich has been invaluable.” Emily Hogan – Development Manager, Little Green Pig