Events: Virgin Atlantic flies the flag for the New York leg of the Big Egg hunt

Somewhere in the financial district of Manhattan, Virgin Atlantic are quite literally flying the flag for Britain with Fabergé’s second Big Egg Hunt, which follows the resounding success of the inaugural event in London two years ago. Over 250 eggs have taken residency across New York for the month of April, with familiar creative names such as Tracey Emin, Oliver Jeffers and Shantell Martin have all transformed the blank canvas of a shell provided.

Among them stands (or rather flies) a distinctive sculpture entitled ‘The Frying Lady’, the brainchild of Mark Jump, a graphic designer from Virgin Atlantic’s award-winning in-house design team. More accustomed to working across print collateral for the brand, he won an internal competition at the start of the year that saw the vast majority of the team come up with ideas.

Mark’s design – the first idea he had for the competition – is a playful interpretation of the airline’s famous flying lady, who features on the aircraft livery. Having created the initial concept, Mark worked collaboratively with lead designer Nik Lusardi to bring his initial concept to life. The level of finish is phenomenal and through model-makers ATOM, the cape cleverly acts as a counter lever to create the effect of the egg in flight.

What’s clear though, is that while this might have been a relatively quick turnaround for Mark and Nik, the vision, innovation and unique sprit of Virgin Atlantic run throughout it. As Nik puts it: “It’s the sparkle and delight, something that’s inherent in our approach across the board. The thing that makes it Virgin are these delights across the journey. In the same way the egg is full of these tiny delights and intrigue.”

Clearly eggstatic (sorry) at seeing The Frying Lady in situ on Tuesday morning Mark said: “We’d only been there a few minutes and people were already posing with it, and it was a whole element of the design I’d not really considered. It was fantastic to just see people interacting with it.”

The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt takes place in New York City from 1 – 26 April 2014, and will help to raise funds for two charities, The Elephant Family and Studio in a School. A big thanks to Virgin Atlantic and The Standard for getting us out there to see it in person.