OUGD504 - Summer Project evaluation and book ideas.

After looking through the images of Knaresborough, and arranging them, I found there was no consistency and no running theme throughout series of photos taken. Looking into different, already existing books to do with the small town it was clear there is a target audience related to the town, retired over 50's, playing with the idea of changing this up and trying to market to a younger audience for a unique publication made me realise that the images I had taken would not work in with that context and would not make for a unique interesting publication for a younger generation. The images were also to similar to those used in current tour and guide books for the town.

Reevaluating the idea of type and its role in geographical context and in everyday life, it became apparent to look at type people see everyday and that we pass without thinking, initially what comes to mind is road and street signs, this could be put into some context but with the signs all being similarly designed and styled it could become a mundane dull publication. Wanting to create something more personal and interesting, it became clear to research by walking through Leeds to see the type which was around the city, which is where it became clear that posters are used on most streets in Leeds, from posters for films, advertising, clothes sales and most of all Music concerts, with Leeds having over a dozen live music venues throughout the city, it became aware that the city was strewed with music gig posters and festival posters in a manor of different distribution methods.

- Wall pasted posters.
- Poster boards.
- Fly posting.
- Billboards.
- Shop Windows.
- Bar walls (Most prominent, walls filled with posters and fliers and visuals for gigs)
- Take aways and cafes.

Looking at the poster boards within the city, specifically looking at the music posters, finding that the boards was layered multiple times with the posters layered over the top of one and other creating textures, creases and rips in the posters but giving them more character, yet once the top layer is covered the posters are forgotten about and can no longer be seen or reused. Though there are many posters documenting posters and music culture through graphics and visuals, no book documents on the small scale of a music cities current poster art, with so much content availability the posters could be used to make a number of publications which document and show off the art of the music scene in Leeds or possible Yorkshire.

With so much content available, billboards and poster boards all full throughout Leeds it was simple to see the amount of type around, with each poster having an individual identity, this usually meant a unique type face on each poster and lots of letterforms to look at, with each Font used to create a mood and style for the poster be it for a pantomime play or a rock concert. These are posters which people pass and take in everyday without even realising they are looking at a form of considered design. 

The mixture of colours and visual content on the posters I viewed ranged vastly from the clean to the messy, some posters worked better on boards than others though, some needed a clean surface to work on yet some worked better with creases and folds in them from being placed about many other posters on a poster board. Through looking into this a clearer concept formed in to an idea of a poster book showing the music poster culture of leeds, this can document the type used to keep with the brief but also be very visual and turn into something more perhaps. 

To do -

• Visit the venues stated on music posters seen already 

- Brudenell Social

- Leeds Varieties

- Leeds Opera North 

- Brotherhood

- Belgrave

- Headrow house

- Crash Records

- Jumbo Records

• Find more information about leeds music scene 
• Look at examples of music poster books
• Examples of poster books in general 
• Keep taking photos of posters 
• contact some of the places in the list above to ask for posters