'We Built This City' and Typologies

We Built This City is a shop on Carnaby Street which challenges what a souvenir shop really is. I had a look at the ‘We Built This City’ website when I got home to find out more about them. I Have included some screenshots of their website and I really appreciate the ethos of the business. They are trying to get artists and illustrators recognised for their talents and battle against the mass produced tat that for sale on almost every street corner in the city. We Built This City is the kind of shop I am drawn to and I like to think it is the kind of shop where my own work could be for sale in the future. Looking around this shop sparked a lot of inspiration for me, particularly around the theme of typologies. 

David Sparshott - Bicycles 

It’s informative, it’s attractive and it shows a certain interest in a topic. That’s what I like about David Sparshott’s work, I am presuming from his subject matter that he has a passion for cycling and the work he produces (outside of commissions) reflects this. 

Ros Shiers - We All Scream For Ice Cream

I was really drawn to Ros Shiers’ drawing style, maybe because I could see some similarities to my own work, and everything was in black and white. I had a look on her website later on and found that aside from animal portraits, her images are mainly of collections of objects. She sells these as prints and greetings cards and I saw her designs available on other textile products in the London shop. 

Other Examples 

While looking around the shop I saw typologies cropping up all over the place, not only in the form of prints but also at patterns which is something I really got into towards the end of level five. It got me thinking about tying typologies and patterns together for one of my briefs next year.

When I searched for a definition of a typology to clarify it in my head, I found this:

1. a classification according to general type, especially in archaeology, psychology, or the social sciences
2. study or analysis using a classification according to general type.
3. the study and interpretation of types and symbols, originally especially in the Bible. 

This confused me a bit because I don’t really understand what a lot of that means. I then found the definition for a photographic typology which was much more helpful: 

‘Typology is the study of types, and a photographic typology is a suite of images or related forms, shot in a consistent, repetitive manner.’

This is something I definitely want to pursue in my studio practice in third year because it builds on my basic drawing skills but will also allow me to develop my pattern and arrangement skills. I will hopefully be able to learn how to take one typology and apply this to numerous different products and forms to make it viable for sale. Whether I will be able to do this in response to a live brief or whether I will have to complete it as a self directed project is something that I will have to look into.