OUGD405 - Studio Brief 01 - Initial Ideas

My intial idea was to create a wayfinding system for Hyde Park Picture House, a small independent cinema based in Leeds. The Picture House is a grade II listed building, built by Thomas Winn & Sons, which opended in November 1914. The cinema is the only remaining gas-lit cinema within the United Kingdom and has many historical architectural features, such as an ornate balcony, an external box office, a barrel-vaulted ceiling and an ornate gas lamppost which gained it's own grade II listing in 1996.

My idea was to create a wayfinding system for both internal and external use by the cinema, which represented it's history along with featuring cultural references to iconic movies and events that have been aired and held at the picture house. The colour palette for the system would be representational of it's existing colour scheme and would make use of a serif-typeface to reflect it's history and tradition, as well as the existing typeface used outside of the building.

The wayfinding system would include elements, such as directions to:

• the box office.
• lower seating area.
• upper seating area.
• drinks and confectionery counter.
• toilets.
• the building itself (from other areas around Hyde Park).
• ornate gas lamp outside.

Events and movies to include as possible references:

• Leeds International Film Festival began at the cinema in 1987.
• in 1959, a real elephant appeared outside the cinema to promote the showing of 'The Big Hunt'.
• first films to be shown at the venue were 'An Englishman's Home' and 'Their Only Sons' which were aired during World War II.