Sen by Kiki

Project Narrative

The frenetic confines of historic Findlay Market provides a fertile ground for quality design. Space is highly contested, necessitating individual stalls to be highly organized and efficiently planned. At the same time, the busy market hall creates a need for graphic salience, legibility, and order. Within the 170 year old shell, the montage of bombastic banners, a flurry of motion, mingling smells, and cacophonous noise approaches a chaotic coherence - out of which can emerge a design that both fits in and stands out.

Precise details crafted by local artisans define this approach to Sen, a modern Japanese fishmonger’s stall amongst the madness. A wood shroud surrounds the seafood case structured off of a welded steel wireframe. Hand-painted signs cast themselves into the throng, projecting away from the steel frame or wrapping surfaces to emphasize the diagonal approach at an intersection of two pathways. Points of sale engender a gentler curvature at a corner. At the bar, passersby make a quick pitstop to throw back oysters on the half shell from a gnarled mollusk-like leaning rail. Hand woven lampshades evoke traditional fisherman’s baskets - the woven motif in turn is transformed into the checkered pattern on the wood below. Traditional Japanese elements like noren curtains play against poppy pictogram-style graphics. Furthermore, the graphics introduce a wallpaper behind menu boards, on tote bags, and wax paper under food trays, referencing the kit of designed objects and foodstuffs that sit on the shelves. Importantly, each symbol in this tableau renders an object clearly and minimally.

This holistic design, with its clean lines and handmade elements, hearkens to the qualities of the fish, giving pause and a unique sense of place to the built environment.

                                           

Project Details -

Submission Category

Experiential Graphics- Small Scale (features or elements)

Date of Completion

April, 2022