Peddy Mergui is both an artist and lecturer, who has been recognized around the globe for his mastery of conceptual design & visual communication. He is the former Head of Design and a senior staff member at Israel’s prestigious HIT Holon Institute of Tchnology, imparting his artistry and innovative branding, packaging, and visual communication. He is the founder & president of “Talking Brands”, one of Israel’s leading design & branding firms, serving clients both in Israel & internationally. Mergui holds an MBA from the Polytechnic University of New York, further deepening his ability to bridge the world of business with creative design and thus allowing his work to include a contemporary approach to branding. Peddy Mergui has been awarded various honors for his artistry & design.
Wheat is Wheat is Wheat is the creative vision of artist Peddy. The series explores the interstice of design and ethics, and examines the designer’s role in a field designated to give shape to an idea, while recruited to effectively serve economic interests.
Mergui exaggerates the aesthetic and conceptual triggers that influence consumer trends and manipulate the relationship between an object and an ideal. Through the creation of supermarket environment vignettes, in which products are rebranded, Mergui presents basic grocery items with wellknown luxury labels and aesthetics, effectively turning a viewer’s perception of quality on its head. Works in the series borrow their forms from the world of consumption and their concepts from the field of consumer ethics. They expose the often arbitrary connection that a product has to its packaging, and the conditions in which a designer operates.
Consumer validation is a recurring theme for Mergui; what does a customer actually purchase when he or she pays top dollar for a “BRAND” of wheat flour, or table salt? Does the consumer place higher value on the packaging than the condition of the item inside and its ability to fulfill its advertised need?
“Wheat is Wheat is Wheat” will next go on display in May atExpo Milano 2015.