OUGD504 - Studio Brief 01 - Review of Project - Change of Direction

Following the presentation to the class on Friday i realised I needed to give some more thought to the concept of my publication. I had a vague idea of what I wanted the content to include but hadn't really considered the audience of the book or where it would be sold / who it would appeal to.

I also didn't fully know what the purpose of the content would be, eg. a typography trail for students from one starting point to a finishing point, or a book on the history and culture of Sheffield, looking at it's typography along the way.

Both of these ideas seemed to have huge gaps in and neither concept was very solid. 

For this reason I decided to go back to Sheffield and have another walk around looking at more typography to inspire me to consider furthering my ideas and illuminating a new concept. 

This is where I realised a lot of the typography that I was interested in originated from a very concentrated area of Sheffield, The Devonshire Quarter.  This area has a lot of historical importance to me as both me and past generations of my family have been born and raised in Sheffield for most of their lives on both my mum and dad's side. 

My dad began his career at the old firestation on division Street which is now Bungalows and Bears and his grandfather was a marks maker for the cutlery industry in the early 20th Century, so I felt a strong connection to this particular area. It also has a very interesting history as back when Sheffield specialised in the production of steel, the Devonshire Quarter was a hub for making cutlery and other specialised steel products.

'Explore the streets around the Devonshire Quarter and you’ll come across the buildings of former cutlery and silver plate works – and, for a glimpse of how Sheffield looked during its industrial peak, take a walk down Milton Street. Here lie the listed Beehive Works and Taylor’s Eye Witness Works, the latter thought to be the city’s only remaining factory still manufacturing the original products that gave it purpose when it opened back in the 19th century.' https://www.creativetourist.com/sheffield/devonshire-quarter/

The Devonshire Quarter also boasts a long list of independent cafés and shops, which trade in everything from vintage clothing (such as at Vulgar and Freshmans) to curious-looking houseplants (Moonko).

For this reason the book lends itself to being a coffee shop book, however the small area division street covers would also allow it to be a handy street guide that people could take with them to find the typography for themselves.