The Kiss - William, Kate & Tracey Emin

On the 29 of April in 2011, Prince Willy and Kate tied the knot. While it’s a bit jarring to realise that it was ten years ago already, it’s easy to remember as the world was bombarded with glossy mags and tabloids filled with toothy grins and medals. 

Chances are decent that you’ve seen Wills and Kate’s wedding pics more often than your own. Kate’s lush locks. William’s blue sash. Pippa’s bum. From Hello to the Guardian, we all chewed on the same generic photos until we’d had our fill.

There were no exclusive shots in this ultra public affair and a whopping 23 million of us tuned in that day to watch them seal it with a kiss. 

Tracy Emin Gives Us The Kiss  

Then the Independent came. A minimalistic sketch by Tracy Emin called The Kiss was splashed across the cover. 

Now, I don’t give a commemorative biscuit tin about the royals. BUT I have been obsessed with this illustration for a decade now. In a sea of literary madness, this beautifully simple sketch stood out from everything else. 

Amongst all of the rags trying to dig up dirt and peer into the Cambridges’ back garden, the Independent went a completely different route.

The Beauty Of Simplicity 

Known for her raw unpretentious style, Tracey Emin took a step back from the royal wedding. She didn’t push our faces into the depth of those royal pores. Instead, she did what she does best and stripped it all away. 

All of the sudden, William’s face was gone entirely. Those eyes that had been staring at us from every newsstand had vanished. He was nothing more than that iconic medal over his heart. And Kate, her flowing hair. We didn’t need anything else.

The innocence of the piece was a world away from the endless pomp and circumstance that surrounded the weeks and months (and generations) leading up to the royal wedding. 

Modern Art = I Could Do That + Yeah, But You Didn’t

In the world of art and design, we often hear about how ‘easy’ these kinds of minimalistic styles are. Sure, they say, I could have done that. Grabbed a blue pen and doodled a quick sketch of William and Kate. 

If the Independent had come knocking on your door for a cover piece, would you have knocked it out of the park? Created a one-of-a-kind design that people would still be talking about a decade later?

When you’ve got a bare white canvas in front of you, it’s never simple. 

What Is Art?

Sure, we can all share trite definitions of what art is and, ultimately, it can be whatever we want it to be. One thing art should not be, however, is a mindless carbon copy. 

Tracey Emin’s The Kiss can mean whatever you want it to mean. Maybe it’s irreverent. Maybe it’s unceremonious. Whatever it might be to you, it’s thought-provoking. 

Amongst all the smoke and mirrors, it freezes a moment in time and turns it on its head. 

You Don’t Have To Follow The Crowd

My wonderful mother knew my love for Tracey Emins work long before 2011 and jumped at the chance to buy me the independent on 29th April 2011. I have kept it for ten years, this year I managed to find the original print. It is an edition of 1000, so not exactly the most collectable of Tracey Emins but it oozes the power of simplicity and that means a lot more.

Keeping it simple, standing out in the crowd (for the right reasons) and only showing what is necessary is the basis of how I work as a designer and what we do at Design-Hungry. I was twenty when Tracey Emins etching featured on the cover of the independent, it was the first piece of contemporary art that really truly blew my mind, it screamed, ‘you don’t have to follow the crowd.’