Whitelock's Ale House - 300 year anniversary (1715 - 2015)
In 2015 the public house turned 300 years old making it the oldest pubs in Leeds, but that hasn't stopped it from still being a great place to go for a beer it is still as busy as ever and it doesn't show any sign of slowing down.
It first opened in 1715 and was named Turk's Head
It was a popular place for merchants and marker traders because of it location.
In the 1880s the Whitelock family purchased the pub, this is where the name was changed.
In the heart of Leeds city centre
The interior of the pub has not changed much over the last 300 years. There is a lot of brass work including the bar, a lot of the seating is old oak and most likely has not changed much over the last 300 years. There are many mirrors that have traditional hand lettering on advertising different breweries, adding to this letting the is an array of typefaces all over the pub.
If you take a look around and you’ll see that the walls are adorned with 19th-Century art, 50s advertising slogans and age old paned windows.
Bar worker who has worked at the popular pub for the last 31 years, said: “I’ve seen lots of changes around us over the decades, but here inside the pub it stays the same.
If you take a look around and you’ll see that the walls are adorned with 19th-Century art, 50s advertising slogans and age old paned windows.
Bar worker who has worked at the popular pub for the last 31 years, said: “I’ve seen lots of changes around us over the decades, but here inside the pub it stays the same.
As Whitelock's is one of Leeds' oldest assets and is still very popular among the locals I think celebrating the 300 year anniversary of the pub would be a great way to approach this brief. There is a lot about the pub that can be used to help contextualise my design for the exhibition, history of the pub also helps to link into the traditional part making it even more appropriate to the brief.
Tour de France 2014 (Leeds)
The words of Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme, who described Yorkshire's Grand Depart as the "grandest" in the 111-year history of the race. An estimated 2.5m people lined the route over the weekend as 'Le Tour' took in some of the county's most famous sights and landmarks. This has been great for the area as it bought a lot of good press to the area and it was widely celebrated by the locals and people came from miles around to watch the 3 stages, this would be a peefect response as it is celebrating many qualities about the area meaning there is many avenues that could be explored for a poster design.
Grand Départ - 5th July 2014
101st Edition
2 of 3 stages in Yorkshire
Leeds - Harrogate 120 miles flat stage
Winner of stage - Marcel Kittel (GER)
Sex Pistols, Anarchy Tour 1976 - Leeds Poly
December 2016 marked the 40 year anniversary of the infamous Sex Pistols, Anarchy tour in 1976. This was a huge turning point in the punk world and for live music; today the tour is remembered as a key moment in music history - as much for what didn't happen as for what did. The tour had 19 schedule dates but the Sex Pistols only ended up playing 3 of out the 19 due to being cancelled by authorities. The first gig not to get cancelled was at Leeds Poly on 6.12.76. They called with the likes of The Damned and The Clash.
It was a very controversial time for music like this as many people were not used to the scenes seen at these types of shows. It seemed to be very looked down on if you were into the music because of what these sort of bands stood for (socially and politically) and these is reflected a lot through art work and imagery associated with the punk scene at this time.
Punk and graphic design
When Punk first exploded in the 1970s it looked like youthful rebellion. In actuality it was part of the Postmodernist movement which began as a reaction to the rigid restrictions of Modernism. Its DIY ethos encapsulated the anti-establishment mood of the mid 1970s, a time of political and social turbulence. The former British Empire was dissolving and a new era in British music, fashion and design was beginning.
The likes of Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Reid (who created the Sex Pistols fanzine) went to art school, much of punk art and design was created by practitioners without formal training. A pen, camera and/or a pair of scissors – and a passion for the music – were all that was necessary to get involved, just like you only needed some cheap instruments and three chords to start a band.
Sex Pistol's style of music was well represented by art student and anarchist Jamie Reid who had developed his unique collaged ‘ransom note’ typography whilst art directing a radical political magazine. In the ’70s graphic designers needed to commission a typesetter to create the type and they wouldn’t see what it looked like until it came back as finished copy printed out on a sheet. Instead Reid cut letters out of newspapers and magazines, collaging them together to be photographed. By doing this he could see what he was creating as he went along, trying out different font styles and sizes and seeing the results instantly. Treating type as if it was a photograph also freed him from the restrictions of typesetting within a structured grid. Reid designed the band’s logo and many of their record covers.
Its very obvious that punk has had a massive impact in the ways that we think about design the methods we use to create these visual messages. It is interesting to see that the punk style has managed to continue to influence many designers/artists over the years. The style is still very prominent within the design world today, the punk scene may not be as strong now as it was then but it is still influencing subcultures to speak for themselves in many different ways.
Feedback
Idea 1 - Whitelock's Pub 300 year anniversary
Idea 2 - Tour de France 2014
Idea 3 - Sex Pistols 40 year anniversary
The best way to pick an idea is to get feedback from my peers, as there is a lot of people all looking different events that have happened in Leeds my main focus is to make sure that I find an idea that excites me and hopefully one that isn't being done by many people, this is what I have in mind when I receive feedback.
The main point that stood out to me from talking to peers was that a lot of people had looked into the Tour de France as it was such a huge event and it is a great opportunity to celebrate that with this brief. There are many directions that could be taken with this event, but I don't want to limit what I do with this brief, I want to be able to experiment with style but I feel that this event would not be too far from how I am currently working and I would not be exploring new techniques and styles which is what I am trying to do with all my briefs currently.
When thinking about events or things that can be celebrated I was trying to thinking of things that are very unique to Leeds and I wanted to show off the best parts about Leeds that maybe people are unaware of. By celebrating the 300 year anniversary of Whitelock's pub I am doing just that, when discussing how I could approach this brief it started to get very complicated as I it becomes very difficult to capture the full heritage of the place in just one poster. Trying to think about the concept for a poster like this is very difficult as I don't feel that it can link back to the brief as well as I would want to.
My final idea, although maybe not the most celebratory moment at the time, but the events that occurred were the beginning of a subculture that I think we should be very thankful for specially as creatives. As I have shown in my research punk has done a lot for design and now for other immuring subcultures, when I asked if this idea spoke to people and they could see potential this is the idea that got the best response because I create a very celebratory poster that has many meanings for different people. As well the concept is very well in formed and back up from the last 40 years of punk being part of design in the UK.
The feedback has given me the right assurance I was looking for with my ideas, I am now going to take forward idea three. This idea has the most opportunity and it will also give me the chance to work in a style that I am not familiar with so I will be very interested to see the final outcome.
December 2016 marked the 40 year anniversary of the infamous Sex Pistols, Anarchy tour in 1976. This was a huge turning point in the punk world and for live music; today the tour is remembered as a key moment in music history - as much for what didn't happen as for what did. The tour had 19 schedule dates but the Sex Pistols only ended up playing 3 of out the 19 due to being cancelled by authorities. The first gig not to get cancelled was at Leeds Poly on 6.12.76. They called with the likes of The Damned and The Clash.
It was a very controversial time for music like this as many people were not used to the scenes seen at these types of shows. It seemed to be very looked down on if you were into the music because of what these sort of bands stood for (socially and politically) and these is reflected a lot through art work and imagery associated with the punk scene at this time.
Punk and graphic design
When Punk first exploded in the 1970s it looked like youthful rebellion. In actuality it was part of the Postmodernist movement which began as a reaction to the rigid restrictions of Modernism. Its DIY ethos encapsulated the anti-establishment mood of the mid 1970s, a time of political and social turbulence. The former British Empire was dissolving and a new era in British music, fashion and design was beginning.
The likes of Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Reid (who created the Sex Pistols fanzine) went to art school, much of punk art and design was created by practitioners without formal training. A pen, camera and/or a pair of scissors – and a passion for the music – were all that was necessary to get involved, just like you only needed some cheap instruments and three chords to start a band.
Sex Pistol's style of music was well represented by art student and anarchist Jamie Reid who had developed his unique collaged ‘ransom note’ typography whilst art directing a radical political magazine. In the ’70s graphic designers needed to commission a typesetter to create the type and they wouldn’t see what it looked like until it came back as finished copy printed out on a sheet. Instead Reid cut letters out of newspapers and magazines, collaging them together to be photographed. By doing this he could see what he was creating as he went along, trying out different font styles and sizes and seeing the results instantly. Treating type as if it was a photograph also freed him from the restrictions of typesetting within a structured grid. Reid designed the band’s logo and many of their record covers.
Its very obvious that punk has had a massive impact in the ways that we think about design the methods we use to create these visual messages. It is interesting to see that the punk style has managed to continue to influence many designers/artists over the years. The style is still very prominent within the design world today, the punk scene may not be as strong now as it was then but it is still influencing subcultures to speak for themselves in many different ways.
Feedback
Idea 1 - Whitelock's Pub 300 year anniversary
Idea 2 - Tour de France 2014
Idea 3 - Sex Pistols 40 year anniversary
The best way to pick an idea is to get feedback from my peers, as there is a lot of people all looking different events that have happened in Leeds my main focus is to make sure that I find an idea that excites me and hopefully one that isn't being done by many people, this is what I have in mind when I receive feedback.
The main point that stood out to me from talking to peers was that a lot of people had looked into the Tour de France as it was such a huge event and it is a great opportunity to celebrate that with this brief. There are many directions that could be taken with this event, but I don't want to limit what I do with this brief, I want to be able to experiment with style but I feel that this event would not be too far from how I am currently working and I would not be exploring new techniques and styles which is what I am trying to do with all my briefs currently.
When thinking about events or things that can be celebrated I was trying to thinking of things that are very unique to Leeds and I wanted to show off the best parts about Leeds that maybe people are unaware of. By celebrating the 300 year anniversary of Whitelock's pub I am doing just that, when discussing how I could approach this brief it started to get very complicated as I it becomes very difficult to capture the full heritage of the place in just one poster. Trying to think about the concept for a poster like this is very difficult as I don't feel that it can link back to the brief as well as I would want to.
My final idea, although maybe not the most celebratory moment at the time, but the events that occurred were the beginning of a subculture that I think we should be very thankful for specially as creatives. As I have shown in my research punk has done a lot for design and now for other immuring subcultures, when I asked if this idea spoke to people and they could see potential this is the idea that got the best response because I create a very celebratory poster that has many meanings for different people. As well the concept is very well in formed and back up from the last 40 years of punk being part of design in the UK.
The feedback has given me the right assurance I was looking for with my ideas, I am now going to take forward idea three. This idea has the most opportunity and it will also give me the chance to work in a style that I am not familiar with so I will be very interested to see the final outcome.
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