High streets are important, both for community and for place. They help define an area as being more than a collection of homes, but over time many they have lost their way, and yet shopping malls wouldn’t be around today if it wasn’t for the high street.
Once upon a time shops would look proud of themselves. Sydenham road was actually beautiful. Shop owners would stand outside of their shop with a look of pride on their faces. Goods would be beautifully displayed. Signwriters, signmakers and glass cutters (these were generally from the area, all had their own styles and would help give an area it’s own visual identity) would make the most humble of businesses beautiful.
These shops aren’t exclusive boutiques. They simply believed in enticing people into the shop by making their store as attractive as possible. They had pride in their appearance. Even a humble dairy or fruit and vegetable shop. They were beautiful.
Some shops were so proud of where they were, they put the name of the road on the shop. We did this with Billings. Most shops these days don’t even put the number on the shop front. We think they should by law.
Today Sydenham Road is pretty shabby. Compare the above with the same road today:
Much as we love Mustis above (which is what everyone calls the store) the signs hasn’t changed for years, it pre-dates the current owners (Musti is one of the friendliest shore owners in Sydenham). Garam Masala have put tiles more suited to a toilt on the outside which is totally out of keeping with the building.
Many people say this is a great dry cleaners. We use another one, despite this one being cheaper and nearer to us. It doesn’t look like it will do a good job. For months they actually had a mouldy wedding dress in the window. IN 4 years they haven’t cleaned the shop front or cleared the tags off the roller shutters.
If you take over a business, invest in new signage. Spraypainting over the old name is not going to win you any customers! It makes me question how they treat the food if they think this is acceptable.
The sign on the right broke one windy night over 2 years ago. They still haven’t fixed it. I’m not sure what that says about what they sell or customer service. To us it makes the shop look like it doesn’t care. It’s interesting historically though!
The sad fact is that it’s cheaper to repaint an original shop front than rip it out and install a new one. Quality signage and signwriting isn’t that expensive.
So shops in Sydenham currently look like this:
But what if:
Same shops, same shop fronts, same prices. Just new signage, awnings and a bit of paint.
Which one would you rather shop in? Which one gives you a better impression of the high street, customer service and quality?
www.designedbygoodpeople.wordpress.com
www.whatifhayes.wordpress.com
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Image from Creative Commons on Wikipedia.
The What If Sydenham project has gained a fair amount of exposure around the world since we started it a few years ago. Aside from the Sydenham Forum where we have posted all of the What If Projects, it’s appeared all over the internet.
Here are a few links.
Aside from a mention on the Guardians website,
the project has also appeared here: Continue reading ‘Trumpet Blowing’
From Lewisham Libraries archives
We love old pictures of high streets.
The shop fronts were well designed and looked like they belonged to the building. Most shops had awnings. Typography and signage was well designed and crafted by people who worked long apprenticeships to learn their trade. Often these people lived locally and this helped to give an area a particular look, a local distinction.
These days many shop fronts are installed without much thought to the building or the locality with the view that standing out, being different and shouting as loudly as possible is a good thing.
It isn’t.
If everyone shouts you can’t hear anything.
We think we have something to learn from the past. That doesn’t mean make something look old. We mean make something look well designed. Fit for the area. Make the area look distinctive in it’s own right rather than making it look like it could be from anywhere. High streets are a supermarket under many roofs. They should feel cohesive as a whole rather than individual shops fighting one another. They need to work together.
Designed by Good People started the What If Project a few years ago. It’s helped raise the profile of shop front design and we are embarking on our second actual makeover soon. Hopefully the next chapter is about to open. Hopefully there will be exciting times ahead. Hopefully we can make a difference.
We popped into ‘House of Linens’ a little while ago to get a few bits and pieces (we are going eco and are now fixing old clothes and buying ‘vintage’) and met the very friendly owner. He was talking about Billings so we told them about the What if Sydenham Project.
He looked all excited and rushed us outside to look at this sign which he wants to redo. We have been really busy and the few times we have had chance to pop by we haven’t seen him in the store. So before we show them what we have come up with I thought it best to get some feedback on this.
So here goes:
What if:
OPTION 1a
More sophistcated colours, the ‘stitched’ logo is on a raised enamel panel (about £400) on a wooden background with Vinyl applied lettering in gloss to make them look as if they are hand painted. The security grill and door etc have been painted to match the sign.
We aren’t sure when the business started trading in Sydenham but it’s been here a long time and the owners wanted to communicate this, hence the ‘trading since ’92′.
OPTION 1b
Or we could add an awning and raise the sign above. The awning costs about £1300.
OPTION 2
The sign is based on a fabric swatch with the turned corner in a shocking pink to catch the eye. Again the design is retro with a twist and uses more sophisticated colours.
So which one feels the most like a small, family run, haberdashery that has been trading locally for many many years?
If you comment please say if you use House of Linens.
For more feedback visit the Sydenham Forum or VIrtual Norwood.
Fresh and Fruity are linked to Billings (What if No 13) as they are Amo’s parents. Infact without their help, and the help of Annabel and Tim from the Sydenham society Billings may never have happened.
Since then we have been incredibly busy and the What If Project has taken a back seat, despite lots of local businesses asking for their makeovers. Unfortunately we have to pay the bills as we fit these in when we can!
We have been promising this for a while, so I though I’d post it here, get some feedback before presenting onto them. It’s been a while in the making!
This is what the shop looks like now:
FRESH & FRUITY before
BILLINGS is a new fishmonger and butchers arriving in the high street soon in the old shoe repair shop and keycutters . Hmmm, I never did understand why shoes and keys went together. Anyway…
This is what the shop looks like now.
But what if:
Having recently had a chat with the owner of Garam Masala (and had a great meal there) we suggested doing a ‘What if’ for him.
This is the before:
Our main observations about the current facade are that the yellow sign looks dated, the restaurant looks dark from the outside, some lights near the window would be good. The menu is too far from the door, it should really be next to it (it also stops diners feeling that people are staring at them). To shop front isn’t original so there is a space above the windows which looks odd.
But what if:
Anyway, we have been hard at work after being contacted by the North Devon Journal on a sister blog ‘What If Ilfracombe’.
www.whatifilfracombe.wordpress.com
Here is an example:
Before:
But what if:
Continue reading ‘WHAT IF ILFRACOMBE’
Empty shops are a blight on any high street (although sales of window polish go up).
W.I.S. Thinks that owners of empty shops should be forced to ensure that they are presented in an acceptable way. It’s a great opportunity to have art displayed, local history, or as in the case of this ad, history AND an advertisement. Everyone seems to hate those triangular boards stuck above shops saying ‘shop to let’.
The old curtain shop currently looks like this:
SAD, DEPRESSING, BORING, UNLOVED
So how can we take something that is a blight on the high street and turn it into something positive?
What if it looked like this:
POSITIVE, PRETTIER, UNIQUE TO THE AREA
| I don’t know much about this new store except it sells gifts.
I guess most people know very little about it as it doesn’t have a sign. When the shutters are shut it doesn’t even look like it’s a business. This is what it currently looks like: |
The shop without a face
I presume that once this was once one shop. I think it would be wise to live in harmony with Desire next door and make the sign one colour. Otherwise it’s a bit like those houses that try too hard to be different from their neighbours and you get a drainpipe painted in two different colours.
One other pet hate of mine are roller shutters that completely cover the front of the shop. They make high streets look like prisons. But you can turn a negative into an advantage by painting it.
So a shop without a sign becomes giftbox…
And how it could look
Kente is a great little coffee shop in the high street. We are lucky that we now have a few good places to go (although I wish some were open late!).
When I posted the original Deli what if it caused quite a lot of debate which led to calls for Kente to change it’s sign.
This is what Kente looks like at the moment:
Kente before makeover.
It’s blue and yellow signage look more appropriate for estate agents sign that sits above the shop.
Look inside Kente and you will find old travel posters like these:
The lights inside have an art deco feel to them.
So I’ve picked up on some of these visual cues with the type. Colours are warm and inviting golds and reds on a roasted brown background which are colours more associated with coffee. Look at coffee packaging and a majority of it uses browns, blacks, reds and golds/yellows.
The sign would be better on wood rather than the shiny plastic background currently used.
Which could look something like this:
Stage 1
| Colours are adjusted (background of sign is very dark ‘roasted brown’), logo is gold with deep rich red-ish brown type for kente. Type is adapted from some type on old travel posters, hand drawn bespoke for this, it’s not just a font! Continue reading ‘WHAT IF no6: KENTE COFFEE SHOP’ |
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of seeing such a prominent building lay disused for so long.
I don’t know if its possible to open it as a food outlet. We have a few places to eat in the evening, but compared to some places it’ is a bit limited.
I love a good Thai, and generally I go to them in central London. The Thai restaurant near where I used to live in New Cross was incredibly busy, so what if this…
THE HSBC 2009
Becomes something like this…
One other thing, in the background you may notice the wall has an old advertising sign for Cobbs corner on it on the new picture. What if we could ‘recreate’ some of these old painted ad/murals around Sydenham for businesses past and/or present.
Someone recently was asking about bike shops on the Sydenham Forum.
Cycling is on the increase and there are loads of cycle routes around here. Having been out on a bike recently I was amazed how many cyclists there are around here.
But Sydenham currently has no bike shop.
So what if…
The Empty Regal doors shop near Kent House road with it's unlovely sign.
Becomes
Apologies for the rough visual!
The idea of these what if’s is to show what even a little bit of design can do. I set myself an hour max to do each one and will do one version at least with the same shop front.
So this is Musti’s turn.
I loved Musti’s.
I’m really looking forward to them reopening. But why oh why, as everyone calls it Musti’s, was the shop named the pound plus store? I always kept going in the wrong store!
So what if:
Musti's, as it is today.
Becomes
The new version, same shop frontage, just a bit of paint, new awning and sign.
The work on this includes painting the metal work and surround a really dark blue, a new awning and simple new signage on a flat painted (not plastic) wooden background. The shopfront is unchanged and I haven’t changed what is in the window display (they are still smoke damaged goods in the visual!).
One last thing, if the large sign was removed, I’m sure you would find the original signage underneath. With a little more investment and possibly new shopfront it could be really special and a real local treasure.
Could the old Chemists one of the few remaining original shopfronts in Sydenham change from this:
Before
Into something like this:
A bit of photoshop and 35 minutes later
This is my first ‘what if’.
I may do more if it’s well received and who knows, perhaps the council will take notice.
The Nabourhood centre (this is it’s current name, I’m not renaming it for this, I know it’s an odd name and many people hate it!)
What if the Nabourhod centre (this is what it currently looks like)…
May 2009
…was painted and had a bit of TASTEFUL signage so people actually know what it is!. Is it that difficult or expensive to do? Some nice proper phone boxes would be nice in such a prominent location, remove the damaged and tired railings etc.
Costs between £2000-3500
And perhaps it’s worth changing the net curtains in the window. How about some fresh different coloured vertical blinds to bring a bit of colour to the high street?
Added blinds in different colours.
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