Kirkgate Market - Leeming Building (sb1)

I chose to enter a concept design for a brief set by Leeming building office space, which was to produce a piece of artwork for the breakout spaces and common areas within the design-led workspace. The client was happy to receive concepts from a range of disciplines, so there were no restrictions there. The theme of the art work was to be centred around the history and developments of Leeds City Markets, and so consideration was to be given to the audience and the personal surroundings. 

The client provided images of recent artwork which was commissioned for the buildings reception area, which was also centred around Leeds city markets and their history, in order to show how the brief could, and has been tackled before. 

There were no size requirements for the artwork expect that it should not exceed 1000mm.

I gave my self 2 days to complete the brief, as it's just a concept design, rather than the final piece. I started by intending to look at the pieces which had previously been commissioned. 

The artist is London based fine artist James Straffon, however the link to his portfolio provided within the brief lead to a dead end and so i couldn't actually see the work commissioned. 

I started by researching in to Leeds markets, particularly Kirkgate market in order to try and find some sources of inspiration for the design. 

Michael Marks set up the stall 'Penny Bazaar' with the slogan 'Don't ask the price, it's a penny' in Kirkgate Market. He later partnered up with Tom Spencer, and the duo opened up a line of shops; Marks and Spencer.

During world war 2 the market which had been heavily relied upon due to the depression suffered bombing raids, however the market hardly closed, enterprising planners saw the opportunity for expansion and added "Butchers row". Butchers row has now gained quite a community, with the butchers of Butcher's Row providing locally sourced produce from all over Yorkshire.

After Butcher's Row came Fish Row, providing cool and sanitary places to store fish within the market. 

primary research Leeds Kirkgate Market

I took a visit to the Kirkgate Market in order to try and gain some visual inspiration, the colours which i found to be used most across the market were red, green and gold tones; i thought that this was something i could carry across within my concept design. 

There were many stalls within the space, which gave it a very clustered feel, clustered with produce that is. I also found stalls which i wasn't aware were there, such as a very large fabric stall. The market was also very full, with many people talking to each other which gave it a real sense of community and popularity. 

After visiting the market, i felt confident that my concept design should try and communicate the following aspects of Kirkgate Market; 

• abundance of produce 
• popular 
• fish & butchers row 
• the colour pallet of the market (gold, green, red) 
• wooden structures of the stalls 
• hand painted signs

As i set my self a two day time frame for this brief, the way in which i executed the brief needed to be considered. Rather than experimenting with a new medium such as paint, i thought that i should submit my concept using the medium which i'm most familiar with in order to be able to communicate my concept in the most clear way.

Initial Ideas

Using the ideas i generated through my research i started to play around with the initial ideas for the concept design, as seen below i looked at different ways of communicating the aspects of kirkgate market i thought would be most appropriate. I thought it was essential to show the produce that people can find at the market; relating to the developments of Kirkgate such as the introduction of fish and butchers row, i thought of the idea of recreating a market scene, depicting these assets, however i didn't think that was going to be very visually interesting. Another idea was to show the popularity of the market through a design showing many different types of people in a market scene, however if i was going to go with this idea then other aspects of the market which i feel are important and need to be shown, wouldn't be communicated. The idea I gravitated towards the most was the concept of using type and having illustrations within/around the type, this way i am able to showcase many aspects of the market, in quite a modern way. I contemplated with what the concept design should say, 'kirkgate market', 'kirkgate' or even just 'Leeds', but as the illustrations were going to depict the market more directly i thought it would be quite interesting to use the word 'Bazaar', taken from the original Penny Bazaar, first opened in Leeds in 1884.

Development

I began to develop the type concept, experimenting with different hand drawn lettering with the word 'bazaar', as seen below. 

As the concept was to combine illustration and type together i experimented with the ways i could do this, the idea which i thought worked at first was to drape the illustrations around the lettering, however a i continued to develop this idea i began to worry about the legibility of the type and also if i was going to be able to depict every element of the market i had intended to. 

I thought that i could resolve this issue by putting the illustrations within the actual type, however the type i had previously been experimenting with was quite thin and so if i was to illustrate within the type then it might be quite difficult to see. 

I then illustrated a thicker type, taking inspiration from the structure of Kirkgate Market, this type allowed plenty of room for the illustrations. From left to right i have tried to communicate aspects from the market as it is today, and it's history, such as the letter B which is used to communicate the addition of butchers row to the markets, similarly with the letter A and the addition of fish row. The letter R features people waving in order to communicate the community vibe of the market, in addition to this i have positioned each character of the type quite close to one another to subtly reference the crowded nature of the market due to it's popularity. Other illustrations reference stalls saw whilst visiting the market for research such as the letter A being used to communicate the fabric stalls, the letter Z referencing the abundance of independent bakeries within the market and the first A referencing the fresh produce which can be found all throughout Kirkgate Market. 

I created some colour mockups of the design in order to give the client more of a clear idea of how the piece would look when completed. 

As previously mentioned, i thought a red, gold and green colour pallet would be most appropriate due to the strong use of the colours throughout the market, i made produced 4 different colour mockups in order to provide the client with options and also demonstrate how the concept is not set in stone and is open to suggestions. 

I feel as if the colours work really in communicating the spirit of the market, particularly the 3rd variation, i embossed this type slightly, in order to create a sense of dimensions within the piece. I tried to use colours which were bold but not too vibrant, as the piece is going to be displayed in an office space i feel as if the colours can't be too vibrant as their is the risk of distracting people who are working. 

If the client is happy with my concept i will create the type again, but on a larger scale (A2 size) and vectorise the type using illustrator so that the design can be enlarged to whatever scale the client may desire, the design will then be digitally printed on to matte paper.

Submission

Above is the concept board i submitted to the client via email, as i had to send the concept via email and did not have the opportunity to explain the concept in person i thought that i should ensure that all the points of the design i wanted to explain were clearly visible to the client, this brief is the few I've done where i didn't have the opportunity to talk to the client face to face, it's made me realize how valuable it is to talk to the client in person in order to get a more in depth idea of the brief and have the opportunity to explain my approach.

Throughout the process of this brief, the value of having the opportunity to talk to your client face to face has become apparent. Of course feedback from peers has informed the design, however if their was the opportunity to talk to theclient about their ideas then i feel the breif may have been more contextually relevant. 

In terms of the brief,  the designs produced are informed by the market and it’s history, the use of type has managed to bring a sense of the modern world in to a design which has a primary focus on the history. The time restriction set at the beginning of the brief was very useful as it allowed the ideas to generate quicker and didn’t allow time for concepts that weren’t working to be developed just for the sake of it.