GrC: Shoreditch Street Art

Today, we made a trip to the Shoreditch Flower Market, and despite the rain, it was worth the trek. The flowers were absolutely beautiful and smelled amazing in the rain. We got pretty wet walking around but the rain let up enough to make a trip back to the market over by Brick Lane to get some lunch. Along the way, I noticed a few walls with street art that caught my attention.

This first piece of work really stood out in the gloom of the day. The use of complementary colors and a funky text to bring out the "cheese" made like this advertisement almost as much as I like cheese.

I'm not sure what this piece of artwork was done for, or what it really means, but I liked the colors and the title above really stood out with its bold typeface. I don't really like that they combined lower case and upper case letters in the word "people", however.

GrC: Victoria and Albert Museum

We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum last week to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, which was absolutely incredible. The museum itself is so beautifully crafted, both on the inside and on the outside. I particularly enjoyed walking through the museum and seeing the evolution of clothing worn in the past. Some of the dresses looked impossible to wear, such as the one below.

This pair of shoes below also really caught my eye. We have some crazy styles out there today but this doesn't even compare!

What I liked about this blouse, skirt, shoes and umbrella was that it reminded me of Jane from Tarzan. This looks almost exactly like what she wears in the movie, and it is fun to see that people actually wore this kind of clothing in the past.

GrC: Guinness Storehouse

This weekend, we made a trip to Dublin, Ireland and made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. The facility was enormous. It spanned seven stories high and each floor had its own theme, including descriptions of the history of Guinness, how the Guinness is made, a floor where you get to pour your own Guinness and more. What stood out to me was the text used throughout the storehouse, which was all very similar and uniform. Even though the different levels had different themes, the sans serif font used throughout made everything tie together.

What stood out most was the "Guinness" sign, printed on the first floor of the storehouse. The text differed slightly and had small serifs on the letters. Very beautiful lettering for a delicious beer! 

GrC: Wayfinding

On July 11, a group of us made our way to Primrose Hill, a beautiful spot in Reagent's Park where you can sit and have a picnic or simply enjoy an incredible view of the city. It was a bit of a walk from the tube station to the park, so we used our wayfinding skills to make our way.

There were multiple different paths to take but these small signs were helpful in directing us towards the hill. The signs were placed conveniently and were clear as to where exactly we needed to walk to get to our destination.

This large map shows the entire park but there is also a clear section for Primrose Hill. I found this map to be helpful because it helps to orient you when looking at the map to give you an overall picture of where you are. I have noticed these maps all over Hype Park, as well, and have found them to be very helpful.

Finally, we made it to the top of Primrose Hill! 

GrC: Walk Down Brick Lane

On July 8th, we made a field trip to Brick Lane for our humanities class. Professor Makey had previously shown us a video in class that gave us a brief history of the street we would be walking down. We arrived on Brick Lane just before noon, and because Brick Lane is known for its Bangladeshi community, we were determined to find some Indian food to eat! However, what interested me most during our walk down Brick Lane was the street art.

What I liked most about the street art were the bold lines and colors used, especially in the picture directly below. I also like that the drawings tended to be very abstract. The disorder is unique and makes each of the drawings stand out. 

In this image below, I liked the repetition used of the blank faces. Who the face is supposed to be is a mystery to me but the combination of the many faces caught my eye. I also found it interesting that there were so many images posted and drawn on top of each other, it is another mystery as to what other drawings and stickers might be under what is showing now.

GrC: Signage in Oxford

As a class, we made an incredible trip to Oxford on July 3rd. There were so many beautiful buildings and landscaping, I wish I could go to school there! After walking around the beautiful town of Oxford, we finished our tour by visiting the "Famous Turf Tavern". What I liked most about this pub were all of the hand drawn signs outside the entrance.

The photograph above shows the first sign I noticed, which was on a beautiful brick wall that directed you through a narrow alley to the restaurant. Once we got to the front patio, there were at least ten different colorful signs representing something the Turf Tavern has to offer. The welcome sign had nice contrast, using varying sizes and fonts. I like that the "Welcome" was it's own font, and that the "Turf Tavern" was in all caps. The yellow border gave it some color. And of course there was a sign for the Pimm's! The British flag filled the "P" and the fruit drawings made this sign fun to look at. I like the white, bolded text for "Pimm's", it made it stand out, even against the colorful P. The matching headers made the signs all tie together!

GrC: Brighton

I spent the last night and this afternoon in Brighton, a cute beach town about an hour south of London.  The area was packed with people when we first got in, all coming in from the beach. It was a beautiful night and we had just enough daylight left to walk up and down the beach and visit a bar that had live music playing.  This morning the weather wasn't as nice as we had hoped, it was raining slightly but we wandered around anyways and ended up at Blackbird, a quaint cafe located on one of Brighton's colorful streets.  

The food and coffee was incredible. The inside of the cafe was small but had additional seating up a steep set of stairs. The menu is full of so many delicious options but I was especially drawn to it's design.  The entire menu is in just black ink, with an artistic front page including plain font contrasting swirls, ribbons and a sketch of a blackbird.  I noticed the centered design on the inside of the menu, which I thought worked well with the overall simplicity of the menu. It was easy to read with the contrasting bold and italicized words. I would love to return to Brighton to see more of what it has to offer!