Brief set on –/03/22, finished on 05/04/22. This was the last, and arguably the biggest brief given to us in this module. It was based on the newly opened bar, LOWLINE, opened by our courseleader, Russel. This branches off their brewry, BETTER WORLD, its beer sold in various providers such as John Lewis.
Lowline is located in Elephant & Castle, in an arch under a railway bridge. This is a very popular business location in London, which gives a cavernous and industrial look to the place. It’s a fairly small bar that sells a quality product, catering to beer aficionados and (this is where we come in) the local community. Elephant and Castle has a thriving Colombian community and a big art scene. LOWLINE comissioned us to ideate a ‘community day’, where the bar is closed and the space is used for something else, a way to introduce themselves to the community and become known by locals.
Pictures taken by Russel on our demand.
This is a blank canvas situation, although a lot of limitations were given to us. There’s zero budget, no loud noise can be made (the rave idea was quickly scrached) and the sàce is fairly small, since a third of the arch is taken by massive beer coolers. Me and some friends visited LOWLINE a day after they first opened, to gain first-hand experience and try the beer out. The beer was amazing, but the space, understandably, felt somewhat cold. The lightbulbs were pure white, there weren’t any plants, the table and floor gray and the taps wooden.
Our initial thoughts as a group was to redecorate the space. It sounds mean but it just isn’t our style. I had the idea of making an open call to graffitti artists to paint over the walls, since they were bare. This wacky concept slowly evolved to a much more realistic one, where: artists were free to come into the pub once a week, practice their craft and put their works up (the walls, although curved, are magnetic). These are the boards we used to pitch the idea:
We believed that, aside from having a good idea, having good marketing was key for this to work. As with the products sold at LOWLINE, we decided to go local. We discovered Elephant Magazine, a local photography and art magazine where our idea could be marketed in, in exchange of selling copies of the magazine at the bar. We also found ACME, an organisation that provides studio space to people who can’t afford it. We saw a viable marketing opportunity as well.
Talking about logistics more in depth, the works up on the walls would change every week, giving life and color to the bar. This makes the customers interested for next week’s collection, and gives artits motivation to create work. To avoid overcrowding, artists would sign up through the website to book a free slot. Although this is an almost 0 budget idea, it does need a supervisor.
Concerning visuals, I was selected to design the boards. Honestly, I just had fun. I wanted the creators of LOWLINE to see themselves on the boards and feel identified, and thus interested in our idea. Since BETTER WORLD uses animals to give identity to each of their products, I chose to make them characters to have a cartoonish visual representation of the project put in practice. I chose a warm, vintage colour scheme to appeal to LOWLINE’s aesthetic.
Overall, I was slightly burnt out when making this project, even though I ended up having fun making the visuals. The teamwork could have been better, but due to the tight deadline, it wasn’t easy dividing the work equally. The pitch went extremelly well, although apparently every group received good feedback (which is suspicious) and I would genuinely like putting this in practice. I think it’s viable and simple enough to work.
Thanks for reading.
NAMENOTFOUND// 