Avant-Yard, Le Restaurant Surréaliste

Final outcome for my Surreal Restaurant.

Eventually it became appropriate to introduce image alongside typography for the restaurant. I will probably develop this project further in the future to expand it to a 'space' to create an all encompassing experience.

But for now, as I said near the beginning of the project,

Surrealism is said to be the 'total liberation of the mind.' In terms of the typographic restaurant brief I thought about how the actual act of choosing something on a menu is taxing on the mind and is definitely not liberating. What if a menu didn't list endless dishes and side orders, extras, specials, appetisers etc, but rather provoked a feeling or thought.

So here is my 'Menu of Thoughts'

Identity of Restaurant

Wallpaper Sample (from a collection)

Wallpaper Calender

Dutch designer Christiaan Postma designed this wallpaper to do double duty as a giant calendar. The design merges the properties of wallpaper with the functionality of the calendar to create a wall that is a true reflection of our busy schedules. By making the calendar so large you can literally look at one whole year on your wall, giving an entirely different perspective of time.(Link)

This wallpaper called Pocket Wall by designer Maja Ganszyniec is like a wrapping paper. The project turns the purely decorative layer of wallpaper into storage. (Link) See more creative wallpapers here

New Walls.

Wallpaper can often stay on a wall for a very long time, say 50 years, and within this time ,so much of the space the wallpaper occupies will change. I wanted to try and portray this change.

I wanted to find a way to amalgamate the old with the new. I decided to explore sexuality and try to combine the sexually rigid attitudes of the 40s and 50s, and juxtapose this with the sexually liberal attitudes of today. Asking the question, Has sexual libration gone too far?

I looked in mens magazines of now and returned to women's magazines of the 40s and 50s.

Although there are drastic differences in the way that women are portrayed now and the sexual attitudes and behavior of women is very different. I felt that looking through mens magazines, that some themes hadn't changed in the fact that women were still being objectified and still portrayed as empty-headed but pretty. This may perhaps be the fault of the women themselves, to volunteer themselves to be portrayed in this way, purely to please their predominantly male audience. Either way it seems that dispite a huge shift in society's attitudes about men and women, that some things may never change.

Paste Up.

I have begun developing Wallpaper visuals based around various different themes.Here are a couple of examples.

Obsessions

In the group discussion, we discussed how the wallpaper could be a projection of self image i.e what makes up us as people. It may be our daily routine, the clothes we wear, our hobbies interests, job, friends, family etc. What things happen behind closed doors? private rituals, personal habits, essential possessions etc.

I discussed how I have an obsession with taking my make-up off, and how before I moved out I used to worry about whether the sink would be okay in my new bathroom ( obviously in retrospect, potentially was suffering minor OCD symptoms) even when in a ridic state of inebriation, still I manage to take it off.

Own Make-up, Make up remover, Cotton Pads.

Old to New.

Wallpaper can often stay on a wall for a very long time, say 50 years, and within this time ,so much of the space the wallpaper occupies will change. I wanted to try and portray this change.

I wanted to find a way to amalgamate the old with the new. I decided to explore sexuality and try to combine the sexually rigid attitudes of the 40s and 5os, and juxtapose this with the sexually liberal attitudes of today. Asking the question, Has sexual libration gone too far?

I looked in mens magazines of now and returned to women's magazines of the 40s and 50s.

Although there are drastic differences in the way that women are portrayed now and the sexual attitudes and behavior of women is very different. I felt that looking through the mens magazines, that some themes hadn't changed in the fact that women were still being objectified and still portrayed as empty-headed but pretty. This may perhaps be the fault of the women themselves, to volunteer themselves to be portrayed in this way, purely to please their predominantly male audience. Either way it seems that dispite a huge shift in society's attitudes about men and women, that some things may never change. This is an idea that I am going pursue in my development of this project.

The Walls Are Talking Exhibition