Penguin unveils interactive poster installation for Exit West

Penguin is partnering with Jack Arts and Audible to celebrate the paperback publication of Mohsin Hamid's Exit West (Hamish Hamilton) with an interactive poster installation on Commercial Street, London.

Working with Jack Arts, themes explored by the Man Booker shortlisted novel such as movement and migration - and, as Penguin puts it, "the thin boundaries that exist in our world" and "the doors between neighbours" - will be "brought to life" in the form of poster art. 

Taking a recessed wall space on Commercial Street, Penguin and Jack Arts have replicated the book jacket artwork of Exit West and installed posters with book extracts and cityscapes from locations in the book. Functioning doors open onto the posters, inviting people to engage with the story and to "rethink what the doors around them might mean", according to Penguin. The campaign strapline reads: "You sometimes need a way out. You always need a way in." 

Penguin also teamed up with Audible, identifying the Commercial Street site profile as "directly overlapping" with Audible’s audience. The audiobook retailer is tagged on the installation and will promote the audio edition of the book to its four million UK social followers. Exit West will be an Audible Editorial pick and a recorded interview with author Mohsin Hamid will be available as an Audible Session.

The book's author, Hamid said: “It was kind of magical for me to see the black doors on Commercial Street, to discover they could open, and to find words from Exit West inside.”

The interactive poster installation will be in place and available to visit until 20th February.