Project Project Project death

Tommorow is the last crit of our first project this term 'Specialist shop'. Its a four week long project where we have to focus on being accurate about materials, finishes and the general look/feel of the store. I was given Bookshops which, according to my tutor, is the most boring and predictable shop to have been given. Go figure.

I started the project by researching Books in a very literal sense. What are they made of? How are they made? when were they first invented. I really wanted to get a sense of the thing that the shop was selling and in the process i came across the recipe (or at least the ingredients) of ink.

"The ink used widely to print books is made from the soot of burnt wood. It contains various pigments and dyes, made from metals seeds and chemicals."

For the shelves i wanted to keep with the idea of processes and so i liked the look of archive shelving and the cyan colour. But when i put it into vector works it made the already clunky shelves look even more out of place, so, as suggested by one of my tutors, i should keep the shelves fairly neutral and introduce colour into the store by putting colour behind the selves. Therefor bringing colour into the space but subtly.

The 'mystery' of the book shop/book production process was the hinge pin to the whole design. This idea is most obvious in the back section of the shop where all the fiction books are supposed to be. I wanted to make the customer have a feeling of being totally enclosed within books, and i had an idea of putting a mirror on the ceiling to create a double height affect. Drew contested me and suggested that it might be a better idea to put a strip around the ceiling to create the same affect, but still leave space for the lighting.

Amata said something that i think sums up my shop 'It has so many little interesting points' although this was something the tutor told us to stay away from...i think it works well in a book shop because, they are all about exploring and finding things that excite you (just books hopefully).

I had a few ideas for the store frontage, i loved the style of 'low key' pornography shops that have a kind of two way mirrored finish. So that passers by wouldn't be able to see into the store but patrons would be able to see out onto the street, creating this kind of voyeuristic people watching element. But that bought into the question, how customers would know it was books. I decided to instead play on the shelving element and show the pages of the books stacked on the shelves, relating to the products kept inside.

I kind of wish i had more time to play around with the renders but....such is life!