Jar 1 -
Clock
Curtain
Court
Jar 2 -
Bar
We knew that our platform was going to be a bar but we had to explore the other words and decide on what theme it would be based on. We started out by brainstorming many different ideas that we had for each word.
- Clock
Time
Time Travel
Dr Who
Back to the Future
Alice in Wonderland
Big Ben
Circular
- Curtain
Performance
Nighttime
Cosy
Warming
Magic
Pattern
Tent
Moroccan
Fabric
Folds
Music
Live music
Comedy
Circus
Finishing curtain
Close
Open
Romance
- Court
Court house
Judge
Jury
Oath
Garvel
Sports
Courting
Singles Bar
Wigs
Kings court
Royalty
Bar of lawyers
After this we found ourselves stumped for ideas, this was because we were not delving deep enough into the concept, we were scratching the surface. After we discovered this we started to look further into how we could develop our initial ideas.
We decided to go with Court but look into prisons instead of a court room. When we had decided on a prison we looked into the layout of a prison and the different options we could have in terms of design.
The layout of the bar/club would be very strongly linked to the prison and we would not change much about the aesthetic. The idea is to have the ground floor as the entrance, cloak room and stage for dancing, the first floor with cells coming of the balcony as booths and seating and a second floor as VIP or private events.
If we could not get a prison as a venue then another option would be a prison ship.
When we decided on this we had to look for prisons to host our event within Leeds.
The options that we had were very limited as it os very hard to find a prison close to the town centre which is easy for people to travel to and from.
We were influenced by a Prison turned Hotel in the Netherlands..
The Dutch have never been nervous about design, taboos and other interesting topics, especially when the topic of discussion is design. The Netherlands is home to some of the most simple yet unique concepts out there. This former prison turned luxurious hotel is just one example.
Het Arresthuis of Roermond, NL is an old jail that was originally around beginning in 1862 up all the way until 2007. Though there was a period of abandonment, this place was built to keep people in. Now, it has been refurbished into a luxury hotel with jail cells as rooms and there is even an upscale suite in the Warden’s quarters.
We were also inspired by the Toucan club in Cardiff which was unfortunately shut down.
THE Toucan Club has closed its doors for the fifth time, less than a year after moving to its latest venue.
The club, which built its reputation on live music, had been based in Cardiff’s Womanby Street.
It is understood that boss Simon Kingman closed the Toucan Club at the end of last month.
Andrew O’Flaherty, from Cardiff landlord Curzon, which owns the building, said: “He closed down because he could not make it work. I found out from someone else, then he confirmed it in the middle of last week.”
He said he had been unable to reach Mr Kingman by telephone but was notified by e-mail that the club had shut its doors.
Now Curzon is working to revamp the five-storey building, which many in Cardiff’s music scene thought unsuitable for the live music The Toucan was known for.
Alan Jones, who runs The Globe in Albany Road, Cardiff, said: “Hopefully it will be back in another form – the name is good. It’s got a good reputation and is unique in Cardiff.
“With the amount of enjoyment it has given to people I think they have got their own niche.
“But it has got to be in the right space. There are not that many buildings in Cardiff that lend themselves to live music.
“It [the building on Womanby Street] is an odd- shaped venue that is very narrow and tall. It’s not like one big room where you can put a stage at either end – it has a lift shaft going through the building which cuts it in half.
“So it was never going to be big enough to accommodate big bands. It would only be good for things like solo performers or trios.
“That dictates the sort of music you can put on and that limits you a little bit in what you can put on. Maybe it was just the wrong place.”
Andrew Kitchen, who worked at the Toucan when it was on St Mary Street, said: “The move to the Womanby Street venue was always going to be risky for the Toucan because of the shape of the club and the fact that the Toucan was built around live music.
“I think the largest amount of people you could have in there [Womanby Street] was about 60. As a venue it was not suited to live music.”
Promoter John Rostron, who puts on gigs in Cardiff and organised the Swn music festival, said: “That building has probably been one of the things that has contributed to the failure this time.”
Mr Kingman last year said the club was settling well into its new home. He was unavailable for comment last night despite repeated attempts by the Echo.
Naming our bar/club
We came up with a group of names for our bar:
We decided on the name Contraband because it seems quite fitting as it feels quite wrong to be drinking in a prison due to the nature of the building and the history which comes with it.
Logo ideas:
Using the crown and adding it to our logo would be a preferred thing but it could be a sensitive subject as it such a high profile piece of branding for the Queen of England and would be difficult to use within designs for something which would seem quite a sinister theme.
After we drew out some initial ideas we switched to digital development and came up with some variations which were not as easy to draw by hand in such a short amount of time.
We liked these ideas but felt that it was maybe too illegible and hard to read. This could have been solved had we had more time to review and refine our ideas but due to the short time scale we chose to go with something very modern and simple.
Final Logo:
Concept presentation:
We had to show how our concept had developed visually with a presentation:
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