“Our tree definitely has some unique elements to it,” Yonk says, also speaking to the specifically odd canvas offered by the iconic building, and in turn, the creative benefits of working within unusual parameters. “For instance, having the top branches thinner to accommodate the tower’s chimneys. Those limitations eventually ended up adding to the character and charm of the tree.”
Both the medium and the scale itself equally influence the artists’ and designers’ drawings, particularly due to the quality that projection can offer. As Oliver explains, each light is considered a pixel, resulting in a relatively low-resolution projection. “That’s kind of the way that it is,” he says, “so it’s got to be big, and it’s got to be simple,” a philosophy to which Yonk similarly subscribed to in drawing for Battersea. “We usually take a maximalist approach, layering elements on top of each other,” Yonk says, “but in this case, working at such a large size, it felt better to strip things back,” instead focusing on bright, bold, distinctive forms that culminate to forge detail at such scale. “A trip to actually stand and look up at the building itself helped,” Things I Have Drawn adds, also noting the issue with surprisingly low image resolution. That said, they don’t think they’re ready to see the final thing in-situ. “I bet when I look at it, though, I’ll think, damn, I wish I’d spent more time on that bit there or slightly adjusted that bit there,” they say, “but that’s what all designers do, isn’t it?”
Submissions are open now and close on 23 November at 11:59pm. You can submit your iPad drawings from home or create a tree in participating Apple Stores across the UK. Apple will publicly unveil the winning submissions and commissioned designs on 4 December. The projections will be showing from 5pm–10:30pm each night until 24 December, lighting up the two chimneys and wash towers on the landmark’s river-facing facade.