Professor Percival’s Emporium
Bath Spa University, 2020
Branding, Print, Illustration.
Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign.
The Brief
How can we design an event that encourages social interaction and fights loneliness?
The Solution
Inspired by the historical city of Bath, Professor Percival’s Emporium aims to bring people out of their comfort zone. By welcoming them into their weird & wonderful world, attendees have the opportunity to learn strange new skills such as the art of fortune telling, illusion, botany, and baking. Over three days, attendees can take a break from their every day lives and enjoy themselves with a cast of characters as strange as the Emporium’s products (No one really knows what they actually sell).
Making Vintage Look Modern
By using a combination of vintage imagery/illustration with traditional, seemingly classic typography, Professor Percival’s Emporium can look like a heritage brand.
Dating it back to the 18th century, and making sure it preserved the classic ‘signage’ aesthetic meant that I could easily bring Modernist grids and typography into the mix to make it look contemporary.
Etchings by J.J. Grandville would come to define the look and personality of the Emporium’s whimsical characters.
Using found images, I made this set of portraits for each troupe member, to be used as part of the wider visual identity.
Signage for the event, inspired by vintage Parisian signage.
Initial poster experiments.
