This material was designed by the London-based advertising agency Mother for the online art gallery Britart.com. ‘Preview Specs’ were a part of an advertising campaign in 2000 to raise Britart.com’s profile, and the campaign won the prestigious Gold Award in the D&AD (once known as British Design & Art Direction) Awards in 2001.

The campaign avoided traditional media, instead using so-called ambient media: this kit is an elaborate visual pun. The advertising material is an interesting example of contemporary advertising ephemera and graphic design, in addition to being a clever piece of art marketing material.

The ‘Preview Specs’ are an amusing way of being able to see art in any environment by merely sticking a small cut-out of any artwork on the arm of the ‘specs’. The visual appearance of the specs intentionally draws from traditional advertising with its loud slogans and slightly gimmicky appearance; this type of pictorial language is not usually associated with art marketing. This campaign is advertising as irony and satire, implying that nothing should be taken too seriously, especially not art.