OUGD502 LIFE'S A PITCH IDEA DEVELOPMENT/PLANT ROOM VISIT

Today the visiting professionals, the plant room came in and did a talk about their practice. They also spoke through a few of their completed briefs and specifically some of the installation they conducted. They began as graphic designers and over time their love for plants inspired a lot of their work and they began being contracted for instillations, involving architecture, furniture design and of course plants. This was interesting to learn about how this came across and their process into creating something like this, using the space given to them as a tool to their advantage. This information was incredibly useful as it would further aid us in deciding how our exhibition would look and where it would go.

To develop out idea with out exhibition, we discussed it with the plant room and they gave us some advice on how it would work. One thing that would help us continue this project is to think why we would want to create this exhibition, not why we should because this means we would actually be passionate about what we were creating meaning a more successful outcome. We decided that the exhibition would take part outdoors instead of indoors, meaning more people would be involved and see it everyday instead of conforming to a set event. We were then split between these two ideas, having people create a tile sized design and we would place these around the city outdoors in random locations or, have the designed tiles build a single wall in one specific place. 

Some inspiration we discovered was this massive mural painted on the Lyons Works building, bringing an abandoned building back to life. The typography and design on the building has been inspired by the architecture of the Kirkgate market, making a heritage and history based exhibition which lasts forever in this space. We really liked the idea of the exhibition lasting for ever instead of just one or two nights, aiding our outdoor idea even more. 

We decided that we wanted to perhaps express some bizarre history of a building in Leeds so we began researching peculiar facts of some of the architecture around the city. One great story was about the bar now known as Mook, previously known as The Whip, which was previously a gentle mens bar in the 19th century, in the sense they only let men in. At one time in history they finally decided to include women and had to build a whole new women's toilet, causing an outrage with the male community. An idea is that people could redesign toilet logos and signs for this building.

The only Grade I-listed building in Holbeck, Temple Works was known for the unusual sight of sheep grazing on the roof, which was done so the wool would retain humidity whilst in the mill and wouldn’t dry out. There would be reports of sheep looking down from the rooftop of this mill and monument. Another idea there is to somehow reinvent this historic tale through design.