City(e)scape
Role. Creative Director, Event Producer. Designer.
Aethos approached me to develop a concept for their run club - an activity that would give their members something worth showing up for, while also drawing in new people to their members club. The challenge was real: the existing run club had seen zero sign-ups for months, and the London running scene is saturated. Free clubs on every corner, most of them doing the same thing.
Moodboard and creative process
The starting point was thinking about who actually passes through a hotel. Aethos attracts a lot of people who are new to London, or only here briefly - people who want to feel connected to a city they don't yet know. That felt like the thread. Rather than competing with other run clubs on their own terms, the idea shifted from running as exercise to running as a way of reading a city.
London is full of things most people walk straight past - a Banksy tucked onto a side street, alleyways that open onto private gardens, a mosaic wall that nobody talks about, buildings that reframe everything around them. The concept was about looking up. About using the physical act of moving through a city as a prompt for noticing what's already there.
That reframing gave the run club a reason to exist that no other club in London was offering.
I've been building up a personal map of London for years - Google Maps full of starred restaurants, galleries, parks, bits of architecture, hidden corners. I drew on that directly to plot a route that earned its keep at every turn: past a Banksy, through the Barbican, into private gardens, past a hidden mosaic wall most Londoners have never seen. The route had to justify itself as an experience, not just a distance. Once the route was set, I built a custom Google Map for the run leader to follow on the day.
Promotion was kept intentional and direct - IG posts to build visibility, and the Halcyon Collective WhatsApp group for the people already in our community.
Outcome
The run landed well. Runners stopped to look, took photos, noticed things - which was exactly the point. Post-run, we'd negotiated a spread of free drinks and brunch from Aethos, giving people time to decompress, get to know each other, and talk through what they'd seen. That informal debrief became one of the most valuable parts of the event - both as a community moment and as a way of gathering feedback directly from the people who showed up.
Aethos have since confirmed us for a monthly slot. The foundations of a run club that's genuinely distinct - rooted in place, built around curiosity - are now in place.
