London Life
Four London personalities, told through moving type.
Pentagram created London Life for London Design Festival 2026, using black-and-white typographic animation to celebrate four aspects of the capital. The Thames, Pearly Kings and Queens, urban greenery and unusual street names each provide a different starting point for the moving type. The piece appeared on the Piccadilly Circus screen at 7pm on 16 September, interrupting its usual advertising programme. Led by partner Domenic Lippa, the team treated typography as a thread connecting the city's varied boroughs and personalities. The project pairs a deliberately simple palette with an animated interpretation of London's complexity and eccentricity. Piccadilly Lights and Landsec provided the screening opportunity, while the London Pearly Kings and Queens Society supplied imagery and Andrés Fraga contributed photography and video.
Insights
- Four themes organise the animation: the Thames, Pearly Kings and Queens, greenery and unusual street names.
- A black-and-white palette unifies the different subjects while the animated typography expresses their individual character.
- The Piccadilly Circus screening placed a cultural typographic work within a space normally occupied by advertising.
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