Leyland proves it’s king

The recent ‘Test Bed 1’ exhibition in London had a knight in shining armour in the form of Leyland after the leading trade paint brand donated a significant volume of colourful paint to bring its chess-themed project ‘Style Wars’ to life.

The London-based exhibition, which was launched during London Design Week, housed work by world famous artists such as Nigel Coates and Vivienne Westwood.

The ‘Style Wars’ piece is a large architectural chess set that pits miniature versions of iconic buildings against each other with the chess boards raised up for all to see on a series of multi- coloured plinths along with multi-coloured chess pieces. With a quick turnaround required, Leyland provided the ‘Style Wars’ team with 45 litres of its quick-drying Acrylic Eggshell. Nine vivid colours were provided so that a truly striking battlefield could be created for this modern incarnation of the King’s game.

Max Dewdney, from the team behind ‘Style Wars’, said: “Style Wars is an architectural chess set that’s made up of Modernist versus Classicist pieces from some of the most iconic modern and classical architectural buildings. The set includes architects such as Lord Rogers, Lord Fosters, Zaha Hadid, Robert Adam and Leon Kier with the buildings acting as the chess pieces. It acts as a fun commentary on the process and debate surrounding style and architecture.

“The donation by Leyland allowed us to present the work in a variety of vibrant and eye-catching colours that brought a new twist to the London skyline. We had little hesitation in approaching them to provide the varied range of colours needed to help create our piece.

“Leyland’s generous support enabled us to display our work to a large number of people and help make a success of what was a fantastic exhibition that showcased work by some leading artists, architects and designers.”