ON THE HOOF

Ela from On The Hoof, a small, Local chain of coffee shops in London told us she was talking about taking over this old opticians in Sydenham to open up a bistro. We were excited by this and she asked if we could help out with the shop front. It was a challenge with the rather dilapidated roller shutter and shop front and oversize signage. We came up with a number of different designs, some based on some lovely stained glass signs they had in the shop which they sadly never used. The inside is very up-cycled and eclectic, so we tried to bring some of that to the exterior. They didn’t use the designs in the end, but we thought we would share some of the various designs we produced.

It’s a fantastic bistro and very popular since it opened. Its wonderful inside and the food is absolutely top notch. It’s great to have such an exciting new business in Sydenham.

WHAT IF no 24: KIRKDALE GHOST SIGNS

Kirkdale has two distinct areas separated by a long residential area. Many people don’t know the top part is still part of Kirkdale.

Could this grey wall could be put to better use?

But what if:

Well, we did. The above is a visual. This is the finished sign:

And here is the signwriter, Peter O’Connor lovingly applying his craft.

The full story can be found HERE.

Local reaction to the signs can be found HERE.

WHAT IF 22: CLASSIC TROPHIES

Another shop that we spoke to after speaking at a local traders association meeting.

We had never been in the shop before and it’s rather beautiful with lots of original features. I’d implore anyone living in Sydenham to pop in and have a look, it’s an absolute local treasure.

The outside doesn’t really do it justice. The shop front is nice with a traditional awning. It’s actually two shops in one.

Making the shop front calmer and making it feel like it’s been around a long time while acting as a frame for the window displays also makes the shop name stand out. For the trophy signage this would look great if gilt and engraved. The awning is a great opportunity to show that there are two shops in one, which is why it has the large ampersand.

So from purple to sophisticated shop with original features. What if…

UPDATE: you can read more feedback on the SYDENHAM TOWN FORUM.

WHAT IF NO 20: STATION APPROACH

Originally there would have been some painted signs on this building. When I first came to Sydenham I didn’t notice the station was down there. There are no signs to announce that you are in Sydenham.

We love the idea of art being relevant or functional in some way.

Sydenham is getting an expensive makeover of station approach and On The Hoof, our new rather fab station cafe with seating outside. It makes sense to celebrate this in some way. It also makes sense to advertise Sydenham’s great transport links now we have the Overground.

We have had this idea for a while now and presented it to the SEE3 group as funding is available for signage in Sydenham, Forest Hill & Kirkdale. We are also advisors for the GLA (Greater London Authority) who are supplying the funding (we are designing this for free, as all the ‘What If Sydenham’ projects have been, this costs US money!).

We also included a visual for Property World’s ‘panel’. We normally approach business before we do this sort of thing, but this time we thought we would do it the other way around (we hope they don’t mind, but it gets them some free feedback). Property World are very active locally and support out local arts festival and the ‘Arts in The Park’ in Home Park (which we also support with free design work). We understand that PW actually rent the advertising space but for ages just had one of their plastic ‘LET’ boards in there for a property that was no longer on the market. They kindly took it down after we posted on a local forum kindly asking them to remove it, which they did (we gave them a bottle of champagne as a thank you) which shows that they are very community minded.

The idea is that we would create a retro version of their logo so it looks like it’s been there for ages. This makes them feel part of Sydenham and have been long established in the area, which is true. We did something similar in North Harrow where we designed a logo for the area but then created a retro version of it, which we painted on the side of a building.

The logo

The Ghost Sign

So their current logo looks like this:

On the building the retro version would look like this:

We could get it distressed (as with the visual) or add the dat the business was started. we don’t think it should be a sponsored ‘Welcome to Sydenham sign’, they can be a bit tacky and are not what would have been on the building originally.

We are still waiting to hear from SEE3 on how the money will be spent but Cllr Chris Best and the team were really positive about it. Hopefully, as SEE3 and Especially Cllr Best have championed art in Sydenham in recent years with her backing to the Mosaic on the Naborhood Centre and the new Street art festival, we hope that this will get the go ahead too.

You can read the feedback and comments from the Sydenham Forum here.

WHAT IF SYDENHAM HAD A CINEMA

Image of the amazing Electric Cinema in Portabello Road

The Film Mill have posted on the Sydenham Forum about bringing a community based Cinema to Sydenham.

What a brilliant idea. See more here.

They have a survey, please have a look.

What do you think? And where would it be?

What did you say on the survey?

WHAT CAN HIGH STREETS LEARN FROM SHOPPING MALLS?

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.

View original post 3,503 more words

BE PART OF THE GREYHOUND WALL ARTWORK

This is the winning artwork that will appear on the rear wall of the Greyhound Pub.  It is an image of a Greyhound made up of images of Sydenham. TO MAKE IT WORK WE NEED YOUR IMAGES.

• They can be anything to do with Sydenham. Old photos, family photo’s, landscapes, artworks, doodles, images of parks, places, people…anything Sydenham related
• There is no limit to the amount of images you can send in
• They need to be supplied digitally as high a resolution as possible. They’ll be cropped square (around 10cm x 10 cm)

You’ll need to submit the images by the 8th of October 2012 to: greyhoundwall@gmail.com

You’ll need to fill in this disclaimer online, please don’t forget  to do this before  submitting your images:

http://greyhoundwall.wufoo.com/forms/greyhoundwall-image-submission-form/

GREYHOUND WALL COMPETITION

The Greyhound Pub in Sydenham has been empty for a few years and is now being developed. A competition has been run to add some public art to the rear wall of the pub. There were 60 entries in total. Our entry
is this:

Please note, this isn’t the final design, it’s still a work in progress.

We found out on Monday evening that we won. We are very excited by this and will keep you all updated as to the progress.

THE GREYHOUND & SYDENHAM IN PIXELS:

Each tile is one pixel. Each pixel is one image supplied by the people of Sydenham. They will be images of people, historical figures, illustrations, art, places, family photo’s, events photos, etc.

All the images together will make up the image of the greyhound seen below, which is based on historical images of the sign for The Greyhound pub.

When you get close you get to see the detail and the individual pixels, from a distance (3-5 m, the width of the passageway should give you a good view of the whole image) you see the greyhound.

The idea is to give people a sense of ownership and pride in Sydenham, to celebrate the present, past and future. Everyone who participates will have their name in a plaque shown on the right that also shows the history of
The Greyhound.

The windows can be covered with the same see through window film they use on London Buses to continue the tiles across the glass.

We have also designed a hanging pub sign for the back of the pub.

This image is a visual and doesn’t not contain the final images. These are yet to be collected.

Many thanks to our Intern, Sandra for all her hard work on this.

We will be collecting images for the wall about Sydenham. They can be of local art, family photo’s, history, famous people, old pictures, places around sydenham and events etc. We will include the other entries into the competition into the design so they will all be on the wall.

Each image will have to be square, 10cm x 10cm at 350dpi.

More details about how and where to send your images to follow shortly.

There is some feedback to the competition on the Sydenham Forum, which, despite the initial review has been incredibly positive.

Designed By Good People

WHAT IF 19: EMPTY PUBS

This use to be a carpet shop.

Then, a number of years ago, it opened as the Pukka Bar, an upmarket indian restaurant. It had a refit that cost £250,000 but really opened in Sydenham about a year early before the gastro pub and cafes opened. It lasted 6 months (the place inside is vast). The interior refit is of a very high quality and remains. The pub that took over from the Pukka bar doesn’t.

We hope the interior will remain, but if the pub is going to be renovated or left, why leave it like this:

What if:

A simple printed hoarding. The door would be indicated by the dotted line.

Obviously this is a transferable design. Whoever is taking over the property can announce it on the stamp on the front of the box.

Have a look at the other What If’s on empty shops here:
WHAT IF 18
WHAT IF 17
WHAT IF 16

WHAT IF 17: EMPTY SHOPS

This is another idea for the empty buildings by Sydenham Station that currently look like this:

But what if:

The vending machines etc would be working which would add a bit of interaction to a building that hasn’t interacted with the public for years. The backboard would be made of planks, hidden doors could be made if access to the building is needed. The type is signwritten on the wood except the sign at the top which would be individually cut letters.

It could easily be adapted to other sites, to different types of shops and be a lot of fun.

See also the previous version

FOREST HILL, SYDENHAM & KIRKDALE MARY PORTAS VIDEO

We totally support this… & we are in it.

Please support the bid by liking the video on You Tube.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,300 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Trumpet Blowing

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:

ARE SECURITY SHUTTERS THE WAY FORWARD?

In short, no. We don’t think they are.

Like everyone we have been shocked by the riots in London. Images of both young and old ripping shops apart have been shocking. Designed by Good People have many friends who own or live above shops. We can’t imagine the fear that shop owners must have had about their lively hoods and safety.

Today the government has announced that they are allowing shops to install security shutters and bypass planning regulations.

This will have a significant effect on our local high streets making them look like high security industrial estates at night and may be counter productive to the local economy.

In Sydenham the only shop that was looted (to our knowledge) was Cost Cutter. They had a security shutter.

It appears as if, across London, security shutters did very little to save shops from damage and looting. They were often just ripped from the side rails.

THE WAY WE WERE

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.

Designedbygoodpeople.com

WHAT IF no14: FRESH & FRUITY

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

WHAT IF no12: THE CINEMA IN CRYSTAL PALACE…

This is what the cinema currently looks (we took a few liberties by photoshopping out the cars and people walking by). It’s a very busy road.

BEFORE:

BUT WHAT IF…

GREENING THE NABOURHOOD CENTRE

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/leenewham/avignon.jpg

Just thought I’d throw this out there for comment. If the Nabourhood centre was covered in the green wall system it would cost between £450 to £600 per m2 (I’ve contacted some companies). I roughly estimate that the nabourhood centre is between 40-50m2 that needs covering. So it will cost between £18,000 to £30,000 to use the green wall system on the nabourhood centre. It reduces heat loss and helps keep buildings cook in the summer. It reduces noise. It’s VERY low maintenance. It stops graffiti. It doesn’t need painting. It encourages butterflies etc. It doesn’t damage the building. I know I’m going got get stick from some quarters which I’m fine with because of the Mosaic, which I disagree with (but I think Valerie has done an admirable job in bringing it to the stages of reality). I simply think it’s worth investigating an alternative. If we think it’s worth pursuing this I will. What do you think? Should I pursue it further?

WHAT IF no8: OUR EMPTY SHOPS LOOKED LIKE THIS

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

WHAT IF no7: LADY METROS BECOMES GIFT BOX

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