As a team our first priority was to research the building itself, Bank House, in order to gather information that might inform out concepts, branding and wayfinding. Looking into the history of the building, it was the former national headquarters of the Bank of England. The architecture is typical of the Brutalist style found throughout the 1950's-1970's. The distinctive block-style architecture had a lot of potential to influence our designs and we felt it would be an important part of the style of the exhibition. Looked at it's current use, it is a newly listed grade-two building and so there is an obvious element of heritage behind the building.
From this research we came up with a range of concepts that could be used within the exhibition:
The first was a concept based around the architecture of the building. We knew that using visual aspects of the building (block shapes) was a concept that was already being investigated by a number of other groups, and so we focused on looking at the blueprints of the building. The concept would involve using aspects of the architectural plans, including the aesthetics of the blueprints, the colour scheme, and the fine details. The blueprints would act as a sort of invitation to visitors, inviting them to investigate the secrecy and mystery of the building and the exhibition.
The second was a theme based around cops and robbers, particularly looking at the oversaturated aspects of cliche bank robberies. The concept would include the use of fake 'bling', dollar signs, tacky memorabilia and neon lighting. We quickly discarded this idea however as the quality of the work within the exhibition would not be reflected through this theme, and would downplay the designers involved in both the creating of the work and the curating of the exhibition.
A concept that I was keen to pitch was again based around cops and robbers, but instead drawing on the history of the 1960's and using influences from that era within the exhibition. The space itself would be divided into two halves; one half set up as though it were a scene from a 60's police station and one half set up as though it were a scene from a meeting place for a group of robbers. Using elements of theatre, each space would realistically staged, using furniture, maps, blueprints, wanted posters and banknotes. This would serve to fill the large exhibition space we were given and also play into the office feel of the room, rather than working against it.
During a critique with peers and tutors these ideas were discussed, and it was agreed that the tacky cops and robbers idea would not have been appropriate for this exhibition. Feedback suggested that looking further into both the 1960's cops and robbers idea and the blueprints had the potential to create a unique and engaging concept, but as a group we decided to continue with blueprint concept as we felt that the link to the exhibition building and the history of the building would tie nicely to the work to be displayed within the exhibition.