Tesco Ireland "Family Makes Us Better" Brand Campaign 2017

While working at Rothco in Dublin I was the lead creative strategist and writer for Tesco Ireland. When they came to us looking for a new strategic direction we saw an opportunity to give the brand more warmth and a stronger Irish voice. We were already in Irish households but we wanted to be in Irish hearts. This new work centred on the idea that family makes us better - both an individual truth and a brave declaration for Tesco to stand by. It marked the beginning of Tesco putting family at the heart of everything they do and was launched with a poem I wrote about family.

Family Makes us Better Poem

Picture your family.

Now, what might you reply

If I simply asked you, why?

Would you start with a belly that miraculously grew?

Or go further back to one yes and two 'I do's?

Or might you reflect in time

How life through more than one pair of eyes

Has made you patient, playful, kind?

Perhaps you'll admit it's not all grand

It's tough and it drives you mad

And sometimes just exquisitely bland

It's stretch marks and growing pains

Pencilled lines up door frames

Unanswered calls and unwashed hair

A silent sorry

Tupperware

There are infinite answers you could give

But perhaps the simplest one might be

Just look at how much more we live

When life is filled with family.

While working at Rothco in Dublin I was involved in the pitch for the National Lottery business. In addition to co-writing the brief I wrote two key pieces of poetry for the pitch - a manifesto for the National Lottery master brand and an introduction to our creative idea "Daydream Believers" for their sub-brand Lotto. We hit the jackpot. We won the pitch.

Daydream Believers Poem

Daydreams

Those curious punctuations

In everyone’s day

That whisper temptations

And carry us away

Now before I go on

Let me proclaim

That dream and a daydream

Are not one and the same

A dream is something you set and forget

It doesn’t much change and it lives far away

But daydreams, though fleeting are here and now

Daydreaming is your brain at play

Daydreams are living

They react and adapt

They invent and invest

Manoeuvre and manifest

Daydreams are healthy

They keep our minds wealthy

For they thrive on creation

And unbridled imagination

But though they’re something

Every one of us needs

Daydreams

Are a dying breed

For that sacred space

That we need to keep free

We’ll filling up with our mobiles

Social media and TV

So stop hashtagging YOLO

As you scroll through your phone

Say no to the filler

And let your mind roam

Be free thinkers

And life tinkerers

Humble achievers

But big conceivers

For those allowed to wonder

Are those set up to thrive

We are the daydream believers

We help keep the daydream alive

After seeing one of my poems in a national Tesco ad, Focus Ireland approached me to write something for their upcoming campaign. The challenge - to present the reality of homeless families in Ireland in a way that any family could relate to.

To do this I first identified a universal family struggle  - having to move house - from which my poem ‘Moving Day’ was born. Told from the perspective of a little girl, the piece follows the everyday stresses of a young family moving house, only for them, those same stresses are a little bigger than most.

Moving Day Poem

It’s moving day today

It’s a funny thing

Packing your home away

There’s so much we can’t take

From within these walls

And actually

We can’t take much at all

Just the necessities

And a few favourite things

Dad says we can pick

One toy to bring

But what about things

That can’t be wrapped

Like mam coming home

With a bundle in her lap

Will I still smell nan’s perfume?

This box says living room

No fridge for the magnets

No line for the pegs

No room for my friends

Or stories before bed

How many months left now, mum?

It was jut for a little while, you said

And when nights are long

And walls are thin

I can hear all the things

You try to keep in

I know how hard you fought

And how hard you tried

Mam, please don’t cry

Look, here in my box

With bunny and clothes

I secretly filled

All the gaps with hope

I kept it safe from all the pain

And waited patiently until today

It’s moving day again

But this time it feels different

It feels like our own

Because today

We move to our new home

A series of veils embroidered with my poetry, in collaboration with designer Anya Ostapenko. The idea for the poem was inspired by the etymology of the word ‘veil’ - an old anglo-french word, whose root ‘weg’ means ‘to weave’. See final poem below.

The Weavers

it started with a pull

strung between us, remember?

a little tug, a hidden thread

timid yet tender

you couldn’t see it, this thread

tied somewhere within

but we could feel it, ever so gently

pulling us in

we were hesitant at first

noting its weight, its shine

you admired its fibres

while i liked its lines

but as we felt ourselves surrender

to this magic unseen

we each took a corner

and started to weave

i chose a gold

from the warmth of your eyes

while you picked a silver

from the sparkle in mine

i suggested cotton

something soft like our sheets

while you made me smile

and spun silk from my cheeks

when i laughed you took the sounds

to interlace with my fears

and when i cried you simply held me

and made beads from my tears

no matter our mistakes

or all the times our love slipped

we’d always find our way back

to repair any rips

and so grew our weave

imperfect yet ours

this entanglement

of our fingers

our lips

our hearts

until you asked me, so very quietly

to be yours forever

both surrounded in this beauty

we’d created together

and as i went to whisper yes

into the bliss of your skin

you simply showed me the place

you’d already embroidered it in

For more of my personal photography please visit www.morgan-grace.com

While doing my Masters at Parsons in New York (MVA Design & Technology), I wrote a personal manifesto which I tattooed onto my skin in henna. This film is my documentation of the process.

While working at Don't Panic in London I worked on a content piece for Greenpeace which drags the issue of destructive fishing in the Arctic into the spotlight via the dreams of a little explorer.

During my Masters at Parsons in New York (MVA Design & Technology) I wrote, shot and edited a stop-motion animation called "Arc". It tells the story of Arc, a lonely creature who lives in the horizon, where she keeps all our secrets safe until they're ready to be released. Her dawn ritual of burning secrets creates a brilliantly glowing smoke that breaks through the darkness of night, marking the beginning of each new day with a bright blue sky. But this all changes when more secrets are shared than were originally kept. Until only true secret remains: her own.

The story is inspired by a culture upheld by secrecy. A secret is a noun, but it is defined by action. So when does a secret become a lie?

Arc's name has several meanings. 'Arcanum' is latin for a deep secret or a mystery. 'Arcana' means specialised knowledge or detail that is mysterious to the average person. An ARC, in digital terms, is an archive of files. And with her home suspended just below in the horizon, she inhabits the greatest arc that connects us all: the curvature of the earth. 

For several years now my mother and I have been visiting a small orphanage on the banks of the Ganges river in Rishikesh, India. This short film - which I shot and edited over a series of visits - celebrates the joy that is Ramana's Garden and was made in collaboration with the wonderful kids there.

There isn't much I love more in this life than a dinner party with good food, great wine and fabulous company. So I host plant based pop-up dinners around the world, bringing together interesting food, spaces and guests. My first one was held in a converted garage with living walls and chandeliers. Next we dined amongst the copper barrels of Archie Rose Gin Distillery enjoying a gin-matched degustation with food provided by Black Star Pastry, and for my latest one we descended into an old wine cellar under central London.

When I'm not putting together words I'm putting together pictures and things. It's all a form of collage really.

"It seems counter-intuitive, but in our experience, if there is a dominant emotion involved in female genital mutilation, it is love - because not cutting your daughter risks her entire future."

Ganon Gillespie, Tostan, Senegal.

During my Masters at Parsons in New York (MVA Design & Technology) I created a multi-media campaign to explore the issue of female genital mutilation. Upon learning the nuances of the practice - which is as much an act of protection as harm - I decided not to focus on its brutality, but its humanity, telling the story of one brave woman I interviewed who fled from Africa to New York to protect her girls. 

The work also included a series of posters with classical female nudes overlaid with triangular QR codes, aiming to transform female genitalia from a site of voyeurism and/or violation into a portal for education and empathy. Upon scanning the QR codes viewers were taken to a website with more information and my short animated film. 

"Clay has memory." Juz Kitson

Recently I enrolled in a ceramics class called "Uncanny Objects" lead by Australian ceramicist Juz Kitson at National Art School in Sydney. It was partly to explore themes in a book I'm working on and partly to enjoy the feel of wet earth in my hands. Here are some of my creations.