Wheelin’ and Dealin’: Studio Joe’s identity for Peckham Carboot emulates price stickers and hand-written signs

Recently, the creative director Joe Powderham joined forces with Erin Murphy and Steven Lopes – the founders of Peckham Carboot – to concoct a genuine and vibrant visual identity for the iconic vintage spot. For Joe, founder of Studio Joe a London-base independent creative studio that merges design and photography, there was one thing that was imperative for the identity to capture: “That human connection, the realness of it all, needed to come through.”

Joe’s right, carboots are anything but reserved in energy; more often than not they’re filled with shouting matches and tartan bags filled to the brim. It’s the people that make carboot’s work, and so the visual identity anchors itself “the spirit of bootstrapping”, Joe says, “sloppily stuck price stickers, hand-written signs tucked between piles of stuff, and the loud boisterous turns of phrases from old-timer sellers”. Joe doesn’t live far from Peckham and is an avid carboot attender, so he knows full it’s a hagglers paradise where stickers and hand-written signs reign.

So as to not compromise the carboot’s integrity and roots, its identity had to revolve around the culture and the everyday experiences of it’s communal environment. Bringing in these cues, and pushing them to the forefront, Studio Joe created a characterful and flexible system. Key elements are a simple logo based on a coin, “perfectly imperfect” hand-painted typography with “highlighter-style scribbles”, a sticker pack event info and callouts, alongside a stacked treatment of the coin visual motif. All of this is tied in with “witty and charming tone of voice,” Joe rounds off. One of these quips reads ‘trade your clutter for cold hard butter’, another reads, ‘Sunday service’.

The nostalgic experience marries in with the importance of strong and snappy copy in Studio Joe’s work. Old market signage must convey key information quickly, like price listing and types of items, only communicating what’s necessary to that stall. Joe expands: “short, sharp characterful statements lead the way, leaving the rest of the system to fall into place.” Another key pillar of the analogue experience is harking to early tech. The coin motion draws its movement from the famous bouncing DVD logo and Nokia’s Snake.

Moving further down this route, Studio Joe’s choice to use Nokia imagery was deliberate. With the 90s aesthetic “more than just being on-trend,” the simple brick mobile represents how “the mobile phone changed everything – it was a lifeline to your people,” Joe says. Thos symbolism of connection is the running thread for Peckham Carboot’s new identity, taking customers through a timewarp, away from hyper-connection towards a simpler spirit of experiential connection. Why shop online when community is just down the road?