When I started working at Piquant, during a blistering heatwave in August 2018, eight of us sat in a single room in a Georgian building overlooking O’Connell Street, working on projects that utterly inspired me. The floorboards groaned and we all sweat profusely as we tried to think of ways to cool the room. I saw a piece of rough cardboard stuck to the wall and on it was an illustration of three people carrying a small Xerox machine. I recognised each character as a member of Piquant, and realised that someone created this flimsy little thing to commemorate a small and important milestone, the day Piquant got a printer for the office. Fast forward five years and the studio encompasses two floors in the same building, and the team has expanded to seventeen people, many of whom are in the office but others are further afield in Ireland, Poland, and Portugal
Piquant was founded with a belief that is easy to express and difficult to truly encompass: Fighting the Good Fight. That is what we say when people ask us what we do and why we do it. It rolls off the tongue easily enough, it’s memorable, and has a bit of swagger to it. But what does it really mean? Over the years Piquant has pursued work that engages us creatively, that is conscious of our environment, that champions community, that fights for equality, and that holds a distinct purpose. It is not an easy task to demonstrate these values in a single piece, so we set our designers with a task: to design ten postcards that encapsulate these five values of Creativity, Sustainability, Community, Equality, and Purpose.
The brief was simple, each designer would be given a value and would have to represent it on the back of a postcard. Each took it upon themselves to explore these themes in their own way, from knitting letters to abstract 3D renders, and even a silly doodle, because life needs a little levity at times. Postcards may seem a little delicate, even anachronistic, but they hold a certain charm and power that resonates. These little things have the ability to represent so much; they can carry the weight of personal contact, little stories, and reminders that to someone somewhere we matter.
These ten postcards, each thoughtfully crafted, are more than just another milestone for our business; they symbolise a commitment to holding onto humanity in everything we do. There is so much good in our world and it is worth fighting for, tooth and nail.
Here’s to ten more years fighting the good fight.
