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SOUTH MOLTON STREET SIGN

2002

Site : South Molton Street, London. 

I was not short-listed for this commission for a sculptural sign feature on the famous South Molton Street in Central London. Estimated budget: £10,000

Proposal:

My proposal is to produce a standard format London Street sign, fixed on a street-side wall, but with extra graphic elements, which refer to inlaid concrete/stone panels in the centre of the street amongst existing paving slabs. although I have not visited the actual site recently, I am proposing a general concept, which I could adapt once I had walked the site if selected, i believe my idea is flexible enough to accommodate reworking.

The concept behind the design is to imitate the animal track sand-pits/signs seen in many nature trails, where as animals move over a sand-pit their tracks are left behind for nature-lovers to see which species are habitants. I propose taking this idea but adapting it to the movements of the human species (specifically high-fashion shoppers), in the environment of a busy city street. As there are also many shoe shops in South Molton street, it seemed appropriate to explore the footprint idea in relation, not to animal prints but to the variety/diversity of fashion footwear.

Ideally I would also like to use sand to record passing footprints, as it would be ever-changing, but practically it would be difficult to maintain so I have suggested cast concrete or cast stone as a more durable and practical solution. I would want though to make the floor panels have a stone effect as close in colour and texture as possible to the existing paving.

I would use various fashion shoes and possibly bike tracks to imprint the concrete panels with reference to scientific studies of human footprint patterns, hopefully I could suggest how the people have walked on the surface (how quickly, which direction, which gender) by careful arrangement of the imprinted footmarks. I have illustrated in my design a few separate panels as opposed to one large area, as I feel this would cover a large area of ground without being obtrusive, the arrangement of these panels could be adapted with more careful study of the site.

I have also designed a variant of the standard London street sign to describe the cast footprints in terms of make of shoe and gender of occupant. The existing London street sign already has iconic power, being recognisable in terms of colour, typeface and graphic design, I hope to use this recognition factor but subvert it slightly with reference to my fashion shopper nature trail concept.