Charles Vallance's creative pick of 2014: Tower of London poppies

Charles Vallance, founding partner of VCCP, says: "The Tower of London Remembers ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’. Effortlessly transcending the industry buzzwords, this was more than just great experiential-meets-social-meets-content. It was a breathtaking re-imagination of a symbol that could risk becoming outdated, at once vividly contemporary and deeply respectful. Like all great ideas, it had simplicity, emotion and endurance. And it showed how high artistic vision can be genuinely populist and useful: type ‘tower London’ into Google and its first prediction is ‘tower London poppies’. That is closely followed by ‘tower London poppies buy’."

Summary Historic Royal Palaces, the charity responsible for the Tower of London, commissioned artist Paul Cummins to develop this installation, designed to commemorate the centenary anniversary of World War I. In total 888,246 ceramic poppies were planted in the moat, each representing the death of a British or Commonwealth soldier. Members of the public helped plant the poppies and were encouraged to share their experiences on social media.

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