‘A large second-hand bookshop that occupies an old Victorian terrace wants you to create a three-dimensional diagram of their store to help customers find their way around. The shop is spread over four floors: bargains and a children’s section in the basement; novels, art books, antiquarian items and new stock on the ground floor (where the main entrance is located); philosophy, poetry, literary criticism and theory on the first floor; world and local history on the top floor. The shop owner is aware that online rivals have the benefit of search engines to help customers find what they want, so welcomes any creative ideas you have to help find alternative solutions for customers seeking specific titles.
Think about the various levels within your diagram: the four floors, the sections within them, and the various book cabinets and shelves within the sections. Choose an appropriate form of three-dimensional representation to present the information you’ve been given.’
I have to confess, the only book shop I can remember going into in the past 10 years is a Waterstone’s, and even then they are usually at the airport. This meant that I was going into this task somewhat in the dark about what a traditional, in particular, second-hand book shop is like. However, I took this as a blessing as I feel it gave me slightly ‘free-er’ view on how to tackle this task.
I first had to research what was the best way to attempt a 3d drawing as it is something I have very little experience in. But I found that the industry practise is to use a 30 degree grid to work up your initial sketches on. So I found a grid, printed it and got cracking.
I have to say for my first time doing this kind of thing I was very pleased with my initial sketches/outcome. Annoyingly a lack of colouring utensils where I am currently am hindered the colour scheme somewhat – but this was easily fixable once I translated these designs to a digital format.
To tackle the issue of search engines, detailed in the brief, I took inspiration from a recent library visit, where I discovered the self-service search machine. It basically allows you to search through criteria until you find what you’re after, and then it provides you with the location of the book within the library. I thought a similar system could work for the book store, with a ‘search hub’ as such on each floor(?)
As I alluded to earlier, the colour scheme was completely fixable once I had drawn out the plan in digital format. To do this, I scanned in the sketches you can see at the top, and put them on a locked layer on Illustrator. I then essentially traced over the lines, sticking to the strict 30 degree grid. I really pleased with the outcome, especially considering I had never done anything like this before! I could definitely see this being printed out and displayed at the entrance (and on each floor) of a book store. I also think the stacked nature of the layout emphasises the fact that the shop is divided onto four floors of a Victorian terrace.
Jon Lawrence Learning Log 