Northern Soul: Creative Strategy

NORTHERN CREATIVE

STRATEGY

SOUL

Northern Soul was a music and dance movement which emerged in Northern England in the late 1960s from the British Mod scene. It was a working-class subculture and was primarily based on Black American soul music which had a heavy beat and fast tempo.

N O R T H E R N

Dave Godin, founder of Soul City Records, noticed that football fans from Northern England wanted old-fashioned, fast-tempo soul records.

S O U L

CONCEPT

WHAT DOES

SHEFFIELD

MEAN TO ME?

RATIONALE Sheffield is primarily a working-class city known for its rich industrial heritage, particularly with the production of steel.

It is also well-known for football, as well as its music culture such as Arctic Monkeys, Def Leopard and Pulp.

A working-class focus reflects our interpretation of the celebration of Northern Soul and individuality within the city of Sheffield and surrounding areas.

PHOTOGRAPHY The aim of photography is to portray each model in a natural manner, both individually and with one another.

Various angles are used to capture the models, such as long shots, close ups and eye level shots. Low angle shots were ideal as it portrays models as empowering figures, which is fitting to the concept of identity and promoting individuality.

LOCA TION

The location of the shoot is around Sheffield rather than in a studio.

This is the best way to achieve a representation of Northern identity.

Various locations were considered such as Park Hill, Forgemasters and Sheffield city centre, however Kelham Island and Hillsborough were selected as the final locations to photgraph the models.

THE PARK PUB WADSLEY LANE

HILLSBOROUGH PARK REGENT COURT BRADFIELD ROAD

KELHAM ISLAND MUSEUM BALL STREET ALMA STREET / GREEN LANE

The styling aims to focus on an alternative approach by avoiding mainstream fashion, in order to portray the concept of identity and individuality.

S T Y L I N G

The garments and accessories are selected based on what the models already associate with, as this gives a sense of authenticity by reflecting their individual styles.

MODELS

BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL BROOMHALL

The following people were chosen to model as we wanted to use people local to Sheffield who don’t conform to mainstream fashion.

They were ideal for our concept of Northern Identity, where we aimed to promote an idea of individuality through their real style.

CHLOE

JARRED

KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH KELHAM ISLAND KELHAM ISLAND KELH

HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB HILLSBOROUGH HILLSBOROUGH HILLSB

TAYLOR

The makeup for Chloe and Taylor aims to portray a more natural appearance as the fashion is more of a focus point within our concept. This achieves our representation of Northern Identity and individuality.

MAKEUP

HAIR

Chloe and Taylor have coloured hair therefore styling is a mix of curled and straight. Hair is styled down rather than tied up as this highlight the colour better.

Jarred associates with a buzz cut hair style, so it has been trimmed for a cleaner appearance.

FINAL

SHOT

VISUAL DISPLAY

Northern Identity would be showcased in Weston Park, Sheffield near Weston Park museum as this museum showcases many Sheffield-focused exhibitions.

The exhibition would be within a large spherical space, with a steel exterior overlaid with a fingerprint pattern. The use of a sphere portrays the idea of unity within Sheffield.

Within the exhibition there are four areas.

The photo wall consists of a variety of styled shots alongside our final shot. Iconic areas of Sheffield have also been included in the wall to celebrate the city. The video would be shown on a large screen and would be continuously played on a loop for spectators.

The style wall displays garments that were used within the photo wall, that are felt to best portray individuality. Finally, the interaction area involves visitors as a bit of enjoyment by leaving their fingerprint on the wall to get people involved with the idea of identity and being an individual.

In the centre of the exhibition space is a heptagon-shaped retail area displaying promotional materials such as t-shirts, key rings and mugs. The retail space has been constructed with seven triangular walls to represent the fact that Sheffield was built on seven hills. Blue has been used to portray the idea of a blue-collar city.

E X H I B I T I O N E X T E R I O R

EXHIBITION MOCK-UP

W A L K I N V I E W

P H O T O W A L L

V I D E O W A L L

S T Y L E W A L L

A C T I V I T Y W A L L

P R O M O T I O N A L

There is a mix of physical and digital promotional materials.

Physical promotion includes the use of tram wraps to raise the idea of being Northern, as well as using promotional merchandise within the pop-up store in the exhibition space.

Digital promotion includes billboards around Sheffield, alongside the use of social media via Instagram in order to reach an audience who are existing visitors of Sheffield museums, such as Weston park and Millennium Gallery. Using @museumssheffield would be ideal to reach this audience.

The exhibition would also be mentioned in the museums brochure which informs visitors of ‘what’s on’ at the museum.

M A T E R I A L S

Promotional merchandise in the pop-up store within the exhibition includes t-shirts, mugs and a ‘limited edition’ Henderson’s Relish.

A selected range of elephants from the ‘Herd of Sheffield’ project have also been used in the form of keyrings. These elephants were chosen to represent the concept of ‘Northern Identity’ from a celebratory perspective.

Designs are simple and consistent, as the use of a thumb-print pattern is used continuously. This presents the idea of identity and individuality, whilst also creating a brand identity within the concept.

CHARLOTTE ROULSTONE