Probe
Prescribe
Brief SHED
Progress
Present
Research Book Collaborators:
Joel Burden
The Venue
The venue is the Shed in Leeds. Knowing the venue is important as we needed to create something that had a similar tone to the setting of the gig .
Inside The Bar
Shed is bar and gig venue situated near the Cockput in Leeds. The venue has a specifically American feel that comes from the interior walls clad in wood and the neon signs that are on it. The bar is not particuarly pristine or pretentious and has a very relaxed atmosphere.
Outside The Bar The setting of the Shed is in a part of town known for music. Outside the venue there are gig posters ripped down on bill boards and the venue is modestly located under an arch in the bridge.
Venue Website
I wanted to know what the Shed’s website and branding was like. I felt that this would potentially inform the direction of the graphic design I would do.
Website The website is extremely dated. I see the visual style and what they are trying to do. The style is pseudo-half assed and meant to look like a do it yourself thrown together deal. It definitely looks thrown together, and today the website looks old and unprofessional. I think with our poster we should attempt to do something similar, but completely renew the idea and give the DIY aesthetic a new lease of life that is more appropriate to the music that is going to be played.
Acts Playing
To help inform the bank of potentiall imagery I was creating for the poster I wanted to looki into the acts that would be playing. This would allow me to understand what genre’s would be playing.
Acts
The bands that are playing in the gig are widely varied. Some of the musicians are 7 piece Jazz bands, and some of the others are solo or duo acoustic acts. The mish mash of artist runs true with the DIY attitude of the gig. The event is very relaxed in it’s music bill, and the music seems to be mismatched as if the audience is just going to go with the flow. The Jazz theme of the night seems to be infused throughout each aspect of the event, from the low-key setting to the seemingly improvised bill.
Design Direction
Now that I had some background understanding of the event, I wanted to note everything down and beginning putting together some design direction materials together.
Type Influences
As I read into the brief and research the bands, I had a feeling that the typography would be inspired by a letterpress or mismatched typography. I remembered the Paula Scher jazz posters from previous research and I felt that they would inform this particular aesthetic. With this in mind I looked for other sources that could act as a source of reference for my own typography.
Poster Ideas
I started to hastily and careless sketch up some possible ideas. By now I can quickly note down ideas and this helps to clarify them in my head. My process is fully for myself, and not for show. I draw what I need to draw in order to get it out so that I can move on.
Focussing Ideas After getting some potential poster ideas and concepts out. I began to settle on an idea that I would consult with Joel about using. The idea was to have a tool wall that would contain all the information and imagery of the poster. I thought that it would be important to come up with a strong visual style for the poster as I felt the idea may have been done before. I took this step and moved forward with the brief. Looking into further imagery that could help me create a final visual style.
Design Direction
The following is a more refined design direction in terms of the visual style. I am still going to use the previous design direction as reference, but the following contain the definite design direction of the brief.
The first two images in this chapter need to be melded together, and then the poster is how I would imagine it to be. The colour scheme of the second image is good, and I feel this is what I want to head towards. The visual style of the first image is beautiful. I love the colours, however it does look a bit too ‘california sunset’ to me.