Light Up Kilburn
12/03/2024 Setting the scene- It’s very rainy and I find myself working on the sofa again rather than at my desk, (is it the weather making me feel unmotivated?) . I’ve got a cup of hot peppermint tea beside me and am promising myself a custard cream once I’ve written this.
Hello lovely,
Today I’m making a note in my sketchbook about the most recent project I’ve been working on. A record of the process, the design, the conversations, the whole experience.
This project was a very interesting one as I was not only working with the commissioner and local councils but to a brief set by the restaurant owner himself. To ‘borrow’ the window of an independently run family business meant that the person who needed to be most proud of the window was the owner himself. It was to be a very personal representation of the owners whilst hitting all the logistical requirements that these kinds of projects carry.
First up, an initial brief was sent to me, the owner wanted a focus on his Lebanese heritage, something that would be fitting to the interior of the café and please not only his family but the café’s regulars. I started pulling together mood boards that focused on colour, possible themes and power words that would inspire where to take the design.
Initial Mood Board
After an initial chat with the restaurant owner I learned that what was most important to him in this commission was representation of both his and his wife’s heritage. That led us to focusing on Lebanese and Moroccan style patterns found within tiles. I spent some time then coming up with different tiled inspired patterns that were then presented to the owner before he chose which one to develop and install.
The cafe’s name, Beit Alwared translates as House of flowers. I wanted to use this to inspire what the tile would contain, I like to think of it as tiles full of petals.
The start of designing a pattern, at this stage the pattern hadn’t been developed to cover the side and top panels of the window.
You would think that designing the print is the most challenging part of a project like this but actually once you have your idea its fairly straight forward. What really takes the time is refining colours and making sure how you see them on screen is how they will print. Considering that this design was going onto a window and would be translucent this was pretty tricky!! With countless back and forth of colour adjustments eventually all parties were happy and the design left my hands and was off to be printed!
After a small delay with install the window vinyl was up and in and the owners happy. He did say to me though that he was happy the window would be installed for just one month as he missed people watching passers by on the high street (who can blame him, thats almost everyones favourite pass time!).
The final install