To start off, I'm going to talk about the last project I did leading up to the start of FMP. It was titled Negotiated Study and we were asked to come up with our own brief which we believed supported and linked to the skills and techniques we had learnt over the last couple of years. I chose to do my project based on Gloucester Road in Bristol (a road which only has independent shops along it). I've been to Bristol a few times and absolutely loved it which is why I chose this as my location. During my research visit to Bristol, I discovered Gloucester Road with beautiful, unique independent shops, cafes and restaurants. I also found a few petitions circling to stop mainstream supermarkets being built in and around the area, which would ultimately put these small shops out of business.
I started to think about how I could celebrate and advertise this special road while trying to persuade people to boycott the supermarkets and shop locally. So began working on an idea to create individual items such as stamps, coasters, badges etc. for a few of the shops which would then all fit nicely in a small(ish) box.
So here's what I made, what I thought worked and what didn't. And what I would change if I did it again!
Box of goodies contents list
No. 83 Scrumptiously sweet - a colourful screen printed fortune picker telling you where to head first in the shop
No. 85 RePsycho - 5 stamps showing the 3 different floors of the shop
No. 87 Playfull Toyshop - rainbow wooden block puzzle
No. 101 Grape and Grind - screen printed coasters advertising the different alcohols they sell
No. 125 Shanti - Indian style decorated wooden box
No. 143 The Fish Shop - lino cut seafood recipe cards
No 347. The Reclaimers - Badges
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| Photograph of all my items together with their box. |
I've chosen a couple of these items to go into more detail;
No.87 Playfull Toyshop
This shop was a traditional toyshop filled with sustainably sourced wooden toys, puzzles, books etc. I wanted to show the playful side of the shop by using decorative text and bright colours. The shop sign also had rainbow colours so thought I'd follow it through to their item. To make the puzzle, I found small blank puzzles which i combined to make one big puzzle. I then made my own boarder out of card. Underneath the pieces I had a copy of the image so when the pieces weren't there, there was a guide image. I felt this worked effectively and made it look more professional. For the image, I created a black pen drawing which I scanned into photoshop and coloured, After printing two copies (one for the backboard) I covered the puzzle with double-sided tape and stuck it down to then cut each piece out individually. This was painstakingly slow and tricky! In hindsight, I definitely would've screen printed straight onto the puzzle! The image itself isn't my favourite for this project. I think the text is a bit unclear. I also think the colour scheme is a bit garish (although both play into the childish mood I was aiming for). Overall I enjoyed creating a puzzle, would definitely do it again, but perhaps prepare for it slightly better!
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| puzzle - in future would like to screen print it |
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| really happy with how perfectly the back and pieces line up. |
This was by far my favourite shop. It was at the very top of Gloucester Road but it was well worth the extra distance. Filled with random antiques, old ornaments, vintage toys and rusting metal cigarette signs. Anything you could imagine really! I thought about how I could show all the different things they have to offer while also showing who they are. Badges seemed to fit in with the retro feel of the shop, while also allowing me to come up with several small images. And I thought a badge holder would then allow me to show what the shop is about through written advertisement. I thought I'd keep the colours relatively neutral while keeping with a traditional vintage feel. But play around a bit with the text as the employers I talked to while in there were really friendly and a little bit eccentric. Looking through my photos I chose eight of my favourite objects and drew pen drawings of them within a round shape, adding text to enhance the images. I chose the shape of the badge holder due to the shape of the entrance of the shop, and drew two pen drawings for the back and front to colour on photoshop. After everything was coloured and sized down, I printed it all off, made the badges and stuck the background to foam mount and cut it out. Overall I think it all worked really well, The colour scheme, images and text all fit in well with the atmosphere of the shop.
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| mounted on foam board and cut to shape |
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| badges stick into the foam, and image left behind when removed. |
Ultimately, I really enjoyed this project. Individual items meant I could broaden my range of products and experiment different techniques. I feel that there are a few objects which could be worked on in terms of type face used to make it look a bit more professional. I am going to start doing some font research to prepare for the text I might use in FMP. But will definitely take how I approached this project onto how I start FMP. Although I'm looking forward to working a bit bigger!
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