Trip - Ideas

Own images from trip

In the pedestrian tunnel under the south bank of Southwark Bridge, there is a engraving by Southwark sculptor Richard Kindersley, made of five slabs of grey slate, depicting the frost fair. The inscription is based on handbills, such as this one, printed on the Thames during the frost fairs. (wikipedia.com) 


Behold the Liquid Thames frozen o're,
That lately Ships of mighty Burthen bore
The Watermen for want of rowing Boats
Make use of Booths to get their Pence & Groats
Here you may see beef roasted on the spit
And for your money you may taste a bit
There you may print your name, tho cannot write
cause num'd with cold: tis done with great delight
And lay it by that ages yet to come
May see what things upon the ice were done.


The poem is set out landscape and is quite long, the idea is to walk along side this reading as you go, quite an interactive piece. My initial thoughts of this was that the flowing of the type is to represent the frost fairs. The type used for the engraving is classical and traditional serif to reflect the era of the River Thames frost fairs around the 1800's. The grey slabs create that cold look and the surface is smooth which has a slight shine to it which I thought was used to relate to the ice and overall texture of the frost fairs.

Directional signage system

As we were walking down to board the boat, I noticed this Bankside typography to the left against the side. In 1998 - 99 the London Borough of Southwark had the idea of enhancing the areas more visited in london by various signage  and typography to increase the number of visitors. To the left is an example of 'Bankside' which situated along the Bankside near the Tate Modern. I found this information on a PDF downloaded from a website about the 'Directional signage system' showing other examples in london. Below is an example of manhole covers with directions to the 'Hayward Gallery,' 'Thames Path' and Southwark Tube.' My overal view of this was the positioning of these typographic signs and how they interact with the public, the idea that they are not your normal signs, On the floor and along the thames dock is different and unexpected which draws your attention.

The signage pieces use uppercase san serif lettering which is easy for everyone to read, there well kerned so from a distance the legibility is still clear, i like the idea of no 'fancy' typography its simple but is clear and effective.

www.carusostjohn.com/media/files/129_Bankside_Signage.pdf