Escobar Cantina, final boards

Finalising Escobar Cantina

Mounting and putting everything up in Escobar Cantina with Will has been really time consuming, and has meant working unsociable hours, as we had to wait for the restaurant to close and work through the night. Over the past week we have been there most nights and it has been a right pain, dealing with the not so greatest clients in the world. We mounted and finished everything off, only for them to say AFTERWARDS that they didnt like the colour of the wall, so we started again, resulting in us not finishing until 7am on Saturday!

However, me and Will are very pleased with the turn out, especially the map. The sugar skulls however, were originally meant to be in steel frames, but we couldn't get around hanging them up and making sure they were secure enough, especially with the limited time. Personally, I also feel that the blue background doesnt match up too well, but the clients insisted that they wanted this to add more colour.

Laser cut skulls

Me and Will have experimented with laser cutting skulls and other various designs that we have done for Escobar Cantina.

We experimented on a range of materials, I really like the effect on the black perspex, but it is more fitting to stick with the wood, keeping the design work more consistent. I think I'm going to stick to laser cutting skulls into wood and then screen printing colour over the top.

We had a bit of trouble with working out how to etch as opposed to the cutter just following a vectored outline. Luckily however, we managed to get some help and it worked in the end.

Sugar Skulls

For mine and Wills project I have started drawing out skulls. This is to complete one of the pieces for the Mexican restaurant. My idea is to have a sketch of a skull etched into wood, and then the sugar skull pattern screen printed over the top.

Original skull drawing, and the pattern to be screen printed over the top, with colour separations...

  

 Mocked up on illustrator....

I then experimented with different colour combinations and a wood texture..

Concept crit

Finalising the brief

Will has found the perfect place for us to design our interior. It is a Mexican restaurant on top of a bar called Escobar. The manager is currently in need of ideas and designs for refurbishment of the restaurant area. It needs to be Mexican themed, and in light of the Mexican holiday day of the dead coming up, he would like the walls redecorated with murals and some art pieces to hang on the walls.

Even though we are straying away from retail, we are still focusing on interiors and it relates to our subject matter of skulls and anatomy. We intend to kick start our research by looking at day of the dead holiday and festival and sugar skulls.

We have rewritten our final brief.

Restaurants accommodate customers by providing a full experience to eating out, It's not just about the food, but instead about the experience as a whole, how the food and environment come together to provide an overall aura . Explore how retail graphics, installations, exhibitions and way finding are used within a restaurants interior to suit and compliment the surroundings.

-A mixed media investigation of retail graphics and shop interiors with a focus on Mexican food, the mexican day of the dead, sugar skulls and Mexican themed subject matter. Using screen-print and laser cutting we want to look into multi-layered posters, wall hangings and 3 dimensional pieces of print. This will be proposed to a high street shop tailoring our ideas to a specific audience.

Skill set: Digital Illustration, Hand Rendered Illustration, working to exhibit, screen-printing, laser-cut. 

Deliverables;

-A proposed Interior restaurant Installation. 

-Backdrop of a Map (wallpaper/print)-5 A1 mixed media prints. 

Retail Graphics

Yesterday me and Will went around town to photograph some stores and talk to some people that work there to find an appropriate setting for our concept. The places that stood out the most for us were Urban Outfitters and Republic, mainly because they both had wall space that would be fitting to the big wall piece that we intend to design. Also the existing wayfinding and infographics around both stores would merge well with our subject matter. In Republic we would want to redesign some of the signage, and even some of the staff members mentioned that they think that there is an inconsistent theme throughout the interior design.

In Republic we found out that the head office is based in Leeds, so the idea is to create some concept boards and go there to see what they think.

Urban Outfitters

Republic

We also went to Best, a small clothing store. They seemed pretty up for having some of our work about, and had some good wall space. However, they seemed to want more one off art pieces rather than a redesign of their retail graphics, which is not what we are looking for. Also their style isn't as fitting as some of the other places that we have looked at.

We also looked at On the Wall, but just like Best they seemed to want art pieces to put up, they were after a sign, but wanted to keep to their existing design, so nothing really wanted redesigning.

A shop window display that we came across that we found quite interesting. Just a display of how abstract and creative we can be with our retail design, as long as it's original and stands out from other stores.

We also came across a small clothing store in the arcade that follows a similar style that we are after. They use quite a lot of earthy, natural colours and have a lot of wood throughout the store. They also have a massive skull of a buffalos head on the wall, which is really cool.

Beneath the glass floor there were steps leading down to the remains of a human skeleton, under your feet as you walk in.

We really liked the wall paper, which the staff told us was made from photocopies of an old newspaper, so was really cheap to produce. 

Initial sketches

This weekend I started sketching for mine and Wills collaboration project. Today we worked together, and managed to get some antlers and animal skulls to draw from first hand.

Lamb skull.

Rabbit skull.

 

 

Antlers.

 
I also drew some studies of the bear skull from the discovery center, and experimented with a couple of different styles to get an idea of what direction me and Will want to go in.