Borough Market

After a morning trip to see the Globe Theatre, we needed lunch. And just a little ways down the river walk, is the Borough Market. This market, in the grand tradition of London markets was full to the brim with limitless kinds of delicious, locally sourced, fresh food. Yum!

But with so many options, the vendors have to get creative to be eye catching. Some of the coolest hand-painted signs I've seen here in London were in the Borough Market, and I've attached pictures. They all had very vivid colors that popped off the poster. 

The V&A

One of the closest museums to our flat here in Kensington is the Victoria and Albert Museum, known to locals and in the know tourists (like us) simply as the V&A. We saw one of the hottest exhibits in town, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which was a huge retrospective of his career. The exhibit had an incredibly vast array of his works, I enjoyed the "Cabinet of Curiosities" room of the exhibit, which had some of his most famous catwalk outfits and sets, with corresponding videos.

However, we weren't allowed to take photos inside the exhibit, so I've attached a couple of other pictures from other parts of the museum that also had beautiful signage and design.

When you enter the museum, you're greeted with this sign. 

A very interesting exhibit looking at what luxury is, and what artists believe it might become.

I didn't have time to make it into this exhibit, but it looked very interesting!

The courtyard in the middle of the V&A.

Design in Castletown, Isle of Man

The Isle of Man is a far leap from London in population. Visiting old friends on the island allowed me a quick break from the never ending hustle, bustle, and noise of the city--and also some fresh areas to scour for design! Castletown is one of the small villages on the island, dominated by (surprisingly) a castle.
The two buildings that each door is connected to are right next to each other on the same little street facing a canal, but you'd never know it from just the doors. The materials and colors of each door give off completely different vibes; the blue door has a nautical look in a more classical way (accompanied by a decorative, blackletter/script hybrid typeface) and the other door has a much more modern feel being surrounded by stone, with the clean lines of the door and a beautifully faded Oldstyle nameplate. The font used for the police station sign was an interesting contrast, a fairly chunky san serif font looks more fun than imposing; and it looks even more out of place on such an old and serious looking building!

The Castle

Door #1

Door #2

 

The Police Station 

Police Sign

Wayfinding in British Heritage Monuments

Over the past couple of weekends, I have been lucky enough to explore a number of amazing British Heritage sites across the country. While each site is unique in what occupies the land, the signage, wayfinding, and branding are unified across them all--providing a very convenient and satisfying visit. All the signs use solid san serif fonts, which are clear and readable. Most use the black and white motif of the last sign from Stonehenge, which has a good amount of contrast and again contributes to the readability. However, as you can see from the two castle information signposts, in an effort to color-code, there is a loss of contrast (especially the yellow and white sign) which makes them less readable.

I'll post pictures of the actual castles tomorrow, hopefully!

Carisbroke Castle, showing the different buildings.

Peel Castle, Isle of Man

Peel Castle, Isle of Man (Continued)

Castle Rushen, Isle of Man

Stonehenge

The Signs of Luxury

For GrC, at least one of our posts needs to focus on signs throughout the city. I've decided to focus even deeper, and after a recent excursion through a number of London's fantastic department stores, I have a beautiful selection of signs from some of the biggest fashion names in the world. The signage for the stores and the various brands help perpetuate the image they are trying to portray for themselves. 

Selfridge's Exterior Metal Sign

Harrods Metal Sign

If you go nowhere else to gaze adoringly at how the other 1% shops, Selfridge's and Harrods it is for you. Both Selfridge's and Harrods have brass plate signs on various parts of the exteriors of their stores. Signage like this is a classic. The metal plates on stone scream "old money" and "solidarity". These are stores built to last, and they sure have. Harrods uses a whimsical decorative font in the photo I have attached to this post, but it doesn't take away from the effect at all. Harrods, in addition, has a signature font and shade of green that it uses on all packaging and some of the exterior awnings. The green is a very reserved British Hunting Green, and the font is a classic script. Very posh. Selfridge's does something similar, but in a garish yellow. Not at all as polished. 

Harrods' signature font and green background.

Currently, Harrods is putting on their huge annual sale (tag line: "There's only one sale"), and they have this interesting campaign going with a woman and her entourage carrying all of her purchases. I can't tell if she is creepy or incredibly chic... I'll let you decide.  

Harrods in all it's glory.

Harrods' Current Sale Campaign Poster.

London Design Museum

The design of a museum's exhibit greatly affects how interesting and engaging it is to the viewers. Before listening to the Design Museum's forum about their Design of the Year, I walked through their exhibit on Camper shoes. Camper is a Spanish shoe company that has used a number of unique marketing campaigns and designs to draw new customers in. 

The exhibit had a number of beautiful displays showing off Camper's originality. One of my favorites was a collection of all the iterations of a popular Camper shoe, the Pelotas. They had a huge collection of the shoe, showing how a Camper original became an icon.

The exhibit also highlighted a cool line of shoes that Camper produced, called the "Twins". They underline the expressive personality that Camper designs allow the wearer. 

Twins #1

Which came first... Chicken or Egg?

GrC: Hand Lettering in Oxford

Oxford, known mainly for its prestigious collection of colleges, is also known for a great number of excellent pubs! After a tour around the town's center we were hot and ready for lunch (as usual).

Some friends and I went to The Turf Tavern, which is apparently a hotspot for students when school is in session. Students are currently on summer holiday, so it was mainly tourists, but the food was still delicious.


Outside the pub there were a number of beautiful signs that utilized hand lettering, which gave them an artsy and welcoming look. They seemed to be in the middle of a fun marketing campaign, "The A-Z of Summer". I've attached a couple of examples of the signs, but sadly didn't get a picture of the menu which had a fuller A-Z collection. 

Coming soon: a more full post about Oxford in general. Stay tuned!