OUGD405 - Studio Brief 01 - Wayfinding Proposal

Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) is one of the largest film festivals in England. Usually held every November, many independent, commercial and short films from all over the world are shown at various venues throughout Leeds, West Yorkshire. The festival was founded in 1987 with the first event being held at Hyde Park Picture House, an independent cinema and Grade II listed building for being of architectural and historic interest.

There is currently no wayfinding system in place for the festival. By proposing a new wayfinding solution for this festival, this will allow the thousands of visitors who attend the festival each year to navigate their way to the various venues in Leeds.

The system will make use of some of the main themes from Leeds 30th International Film Festival, which included light, shadow and reflections. It will make use of supergraphics produced from vinyl so that it is suitable for use outdoors, to provide a fixed shadow for directional purposes, overcoming the problem that shadows change depending on the time of day. These will be accompanied with wall fixtures that represent each specific venue.

The system will also have cultural references to some of the films showing at the festival, which links it to the themes of light and shadow. This includes some the first films to be shot in Leeds, such as that by director Louis Le Prince, as well as 'Their Only Son' and 'An Englishman's House' which were the first films to be shown at Hyde Park Picture House. The colour scheme of this wayfinding system will be mainly greyscale to continue referencing the first films ever produced, which were shot in black and white.

There are a total of 29 venues that hold events for LIFF, however the ones I have chosen to work with for this specific wayfinding system are:

• Hyde Park Picture House.
• The Tetley.
• Leeds College of Music.
• Leeds Dock (including Leeds Bridge and Leeds Dock water taxi).
• Left Bank, Leeds.