The museum remains closed to visitors amid the pandemic, but the Supermarket pop-up provided a way to welcome guests for essentials.

Key features

A collaboration between the Design Museum, artist-designer Camille Walala and gin brand Bombay Sapphire, the project shows the supermarket through the eyes of creatives. The fully functional space, rendered in Walala’s iconic graphic style, stocked everyday goods – like coffee, bread, toilet roll, and, of course, gin – with packaging designed by ten emerging artists. Complete with an outdoor shopping-cart kiosk, produce section and pyramid-like canned food display, Supermarket was not just a colourful Instagrammable attraction, but a legitimate way for visitors to reconnect with art and design after months of cultural institutions being closed. The proceeds of the installation, which ran from 21-25 April, will benefit the Design Museum’s Bombay-supported Emerging Designer Access Fund.

Frame’s take

Talk about a brilliant way to activate a disused space as a platform and send a meaningful message. As Design Museum director and chief executive Tim Marlow puts it: ‘This installation is an opportunity to rethink about what we buy, who profits and what we consider to be essential.’ Over the past year, the supermarket has been one of the only consistently accessible spaces outside of the home. All too often, it’s a pretty mundane destination. So food retailers should definitely be taking note of Camille Walala’s cheerful interpretation. But this is also a great point of reference for institutions who likewise need to find new ways of engaging with their absent audiences.