Tom Hingston's identity for the V&A's summer show is a fresh take on Alice in Wonderland

Typographic and bold in its nature with a soft palette and playful messaging throughout, Hingston's branding for Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser is a completely unexpected take on what could be deemed as an oversaturated creative subject. "Alice is a cultural icon whose identity has transcended time and one that has been heavily interpreted over the years," explains Tom Hingston. "Working with such an influential narrative meant that it was important to define our own contemporary, distinctive visual identity for this show and one with multigenerational appeal."

Hingston worked closely with the London museum on concept, art direction and design to deliver a visual language for the exhibition, one that examines the transcendence of the Alice in Wonderland character, throughout the last 150 years across fashion, film, theatre, music, literature and art.

There's also a modern take on vintage Circus posters, the campaign messaging, also dreamt up by Hingston, plays with a repeated call to action as its lead voice. We read things like 'Step Into Wonderland!', 'See the Amazing…', and 'Don’t be Late!' – all little reminders of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

There's even a gentle nod to the story's famed exploration of perspective and size with a responsive typographic system that's "elastic in behaviour", as Hingston puts it, allowing the campaign to behave dynamically across digital. "Letterforms have an inherent stretch, flex and elasticity – shrinking, squeezing and expanding into any given space – or indeed, format," adds the London studio.

The campaign and identity couldn't be complete without featuring key characters from the beloved story. "Imagining an identifiable yet anonymous Alice, our heroine was shot as live action, then animated with a stop frame aesthetic, creating an intentional juxtaposition to the typographic backdrop," adds Hingston. While characters such as Rabbit and Caterpillar were designed especially for the campaign, created with puppet makers, Jonny & Will, and then re-modelled and animated by Hingston.

If you want to see Tom Hingston's works in the flesh, or indeed enjoy the V&A's immersive summer show; Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser, it's now on until Friday 31 December 2021.