To begin this project I decided it was best to go out about east London to see what was there and what was going on. The areas I focused on were Shoreditch, Hackney, Dalston and all the surrounding areas. As my family don’t live in London and it was Christmas I wasn't in London for the whole project and so an amount of my research had to be done over the internet so I was able to keep up.
I decided to make a small consumer profile from Chinese blogs and myspaces or an 18 - 25 year old girl. She’s quite quirky in her style and is into music, art, fashion and design.
I decided to make my Insiders guide as a website for a few reasons. One being it is a lot more economical than using amounts of paper; it would also be easy for me to do as I have contacts in the web design business that were willing to help me. If it were to become more than just a prototype I would think about maybe making it membership only or to have a subscription to be able to profit from it or even invite companies to advertise their products.
The layout I decided to keep fairly minimal but also quite modern, I also wanted to make it more female friendly. I decided to use a graphic by Kate Moross as the main image as she is huge around London right now and I feel her work sums up what is happening in the city right now.
I divided my research and guide into sections which are important for a traveller. Including travel, shopping and sleeping. Within these sections there are sub sections which break the categories down even further. Within a few I’ve tried not to just do the obvious, for example in the market section I’ve focused on the sellers opposed to the actual markets and under music I thought it would be more fun to put in a play list. I also added in a section called 'eyes peeled' which is based on street and guerrilla art around the East End as I feel this is quite a large part of East London culture.
Looking to the future of London and what is going to be happening I decided to write a few pages to put in my research file and have left my Insiders guide more of things today but that will still be around in the next few years. I did include some events I made up which are in the post below.
From doing this project I have a much better understanding of just how much the Olympics are going to effect the east end.
Wednesday 7 January 2009
Tuesday 6 January 2009
Future Events
I decided to make up a few future events which could happen in the future from looking at my research, they were;
I thought as the Olympics will be drawing more people in, there will be more emphasis on british culture and thought food would be a good place to start, traditional british food but made a bit more modern prehaps.
Inspired by the 'Hackney antics' blog. i wanted something to involve the community, as i feel community is quite important in the east end.
i know Olympic art festivals have been around since the birth of the Olympics and there are variations around, i thought it might be fun to expand it and take current street artists around east london to display their work in various locations.
And due to boris johnsons remarks that ping pong was born in England i thought it could be fun to have a big ping pong tournement for everyone, pro's and ammatures but make it a bit more fun with other ping pong based games and maybe some competitions for the best looking bat.
I thought as the Olympics will be drawing more people in, there will be more emphasis on british culture and thought food would be a good place to start, traditional british food but made a bit more modern prehaps.
Inspired by the 'Hackney antics' blog. i wanted something to involve the community, as i feel community is quite important in the east end.
i know Olympic art festivals have been around since the birth of the Olympics and there are variations around, i thought it might be fun to expand it and take current street artists around east london to display their work in various locations.
And due to boris johnsons remarks that ping pong was born in England i thought it could be fun to have a big ping pong tournement for everyone, pro's and ammatures but make it a bit more fun with other ping pong based games and maybe some competitions for the best looking bat.
Consumer Consumer
I split my consumer guide into 7 catagories:
Shopping
Eat / Drink
Sleep
Entertainment/ Culture
Transport
Relax and
Eyes peeled.
Within each section i have broken it down into even more catagories;
Shopping includes markets - though i have made a list of markets around i thought it would be more interesting to focus on some particular market holders that i like for my consumer to look out for. Shopping also includes boutiques, vintage and specialist.
Eat / Drink inlcludes pubs/bars, clubs, restaurants, delicatessence and cafes.
i tried to include a bit of everything, from british cafes to arty night clubs that arn't in shoreditch and a small aspect of multicultural eating.
Sleep i found the hardest because i was trying to taylor my guide around my consumer who is quite quirky and so i wanted some fun hotels but i could only find two that i thought interesting enough to put in.
Culture / entertainment - covers music, i havn't listed bands that would be playing or club nights that are happening because thigns are always changing, so instead i have put in a play list of bands, DJ's and musicians currently hot on the london music scene. Also in this section i have listed performance/cineam, sport and art & design. I also have a section called future events where i have made up some events which could happen in the future due to research i have done.
Transport - i have couvered all the basic forms of transportation around london as it is a key aspect you would need to know whilst visiting a foreign country.
Relax has hair & nails, Spa's and i also put in meditation.
Eyes peeled is the last catagorie, here i just listed some street art and such like found around the east london area, because it is such a big part of the culture i thought it might be fun.
Shopping
Eat / Drink
Sleep
Entertainment/ Culture
Transport
Relax and
Eyes peeled.
Within each section i have broken it down into even more catagories;
Shopping includes markets - though i have made a list of markets around i thought it would be more interesting to focus on some particular market holders that i like for my consumer to look out for. Shopping also includes boutiques, vintage and specialist.
Eat / Drink inlcludes pubs/bars, clubs, restaurants, delicatessence and cafes.
i tried to include a bit of everything, from british cafes to arty night clubs that arn't in shoreditch and a small aspect of multicultural eating.
Sleep i found the hardest because i was trying to taylor my guide around my consumer who is quite quirky and so i wanted some fun hotels but i could only find two that i thought interesting enough to put in.
Culture / entertainment - covers music, i havn't listed bands that would be playing or club nights that are happening because thigns are always changing, so instead i have put in a play list of bands, DJ's and musicians currently hot on the london music scene. Also in this section i have listed performance/cineam, sport and art & design. I also have a section called future events where i have made up some events which could happen in the future due to research i have done.
Transport - i have couvered all the basic forms of transportation around london as it is a key aspect you would need to know whilst visiting a foreign country.
Relax has hair & nails, Spa's and i also put in meditation.
Eyes peeled is the last catagorie, here i just listed some street art and such like found around the east london area, because it is such a big part of the culture i thought it might be fun.
Developments Developments
Developments are going to be happening all over east london in the build up to the Olympics. It appears that Dalston and Hackney are two of the most effected areas. i found these blogs which show the current occupiers of the areas arn't so happy about this!
Open Dalston
and
Open Shoreditch
Open Dalston
and
Open Shoreditch
Other aspects of Beijing
On the otherside of chinese culture, it is still very much into luxury... at the begining of the module i bought the magazine WestEast and it lists the best hotels in China, which all seem to be high designer. It also had an article on the first boutique hotel to open, which i found quite significant because they are already popular over europe and London. Thecoolhunter.net also had images of the new W hotel opening in Hong Kong.
Due to these findings i decided to advertise the few boutique hotels in the East end. The Andaz and The Zetter. Im not sure how 'insiders' these are, however they were deffinately the most interesting and 'nice' hotels in the east and i also decided hotels arn't likely to be too 'inside' as then they would have no trade.
Due to these findings i decided to advertise the few boutique hotels in the East end. The Andaz and The Zetter. Im not sure how 'insiders' these are, however they were deffinately the most interesting and 'nice' hotels in the east and i also decided hotels arn't likely to be too 'inside' as then they would have no trade.
New Beijing New London
I wanted to think about my target consumer some more, so i started to look in to what's happening in Beijing. The main thing that caught my eye was the up coming alternative music scene. Laws in china probid certain words and languages in music which is why the majority of the country listen to the main streme pop music.
However the alternative scene is pushing through gradually. Converse did a lovenoise tour around the country promoting a few of the top alternative bands along with local ones depending on which area they were in.
In a current Dazed & Confused they had an article on upcoming talent from Beijing also, including;
P.K.14 - one of the biggest 'alternative' bands.
Queen Sea Big Shark - another band, who are awsome, the lead singer Fu Han is a chinese Karen O!
Xander Zhou - an up coming designer trying to change the meaning of 'made in china'
MC Webber - in china the lyrics of a rapper must be vetter by the gouvernment before the public eing alowed to listen.
Carsick Cars - the best known chinese band in the west.
Ourself Beside me - a 3 girl rock band.
Peng Lei - film maker, ilustrator, musican and toyshop owner.
Queer as Folk Beijing - the first gay webshow in beijing!!
8GG - experimental art
GIA - chinas first lady of punk
No.223 - photographer and editor in cheif of Toomagazine
Michael Pettis - the man behind Beijings newest alternative record lable
I feel all these images show how Beijing and the younger people living in beijing love to be creative, the new generation love to be different and listen to different music, shop in different places and read different magazines. This will be a key point in my research and guide.
However the alternative scene is pushing through gradually. Converse did a lovenoise tour around the country promoting a few of the top alternative bands along with local ones depending on which area they were in.
In a current Dazed & Confused they had an article on upcoming talent from Beijing also, including;
P.K.14 - one of the biggest 'alternative' bands.
Queen Sea Big Shark - another band, who are awsome, the lead singer Fu Han is a chinese Karen O!
Xander Zhou - an up coming designer trying to change the meaning of 'made in china'
MC Webber - in china the lyrics of a rapper must be vetter by the gouvernment before the public eing alowed to listen.
Carsick Cars - the best known chinese band in the west.
Ourself Beside me - a 3 girl rock band.
Peng Lei - film maker, ilustrator, musican and toyshop owner.
Queer as Folk Beijing - the first gay webshow in beijing!!
8GG - experimental art
GIA - chinas first lady of punk
No.223 - photographer and editor in cheif of Toomagazine
Michael Pettis - the man behind Beijings newest alternative record lable
I feel all these images show how Beijing and the younger people living in beijing love to be creative, the new generation love to be different and listen to different music, shop in different places and read different magazines. This will be a key point in my research and guide.
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