Studio Brief - Research, Collect, Prepare

My research theme was 'Cheers', the 1980's and '90's classic TV program. As I had no knowledge of this program prior to getting the brief, I started by looking quickly on IMDB and Wikipedia and read into what the program was about. This is what I found out:

IMDB: 'Sam Malone, a former baseball star, is the head of a nice little bar where Norm, Cliff, Dr. Frasier and all the other regular customers spend together a few hours every day, talking about their problems, laughing at each other's flaws, trying to be there when someone else needs them. "Cheers" is the place where everybody knows your name...'

Wiki: 'Cheers is an American sitcom television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles. The show is set in the Cheers bar (named for the toast "Cheers") in Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, chat and have fun. The show's theme song, written and performed by Gary Portnoy, and co-written with Judy Hart Angelo, lent its famous refrain, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name", as the show's tagline. After premiering on September 30, 1982, it was nearly cancelled during its first season when it ranked last in ratings for its premiere (74th out of 77 shows). Cheers, however, eventually became a highly rated television show in the United States, earning a top-ten rating during 8 of its 11 seasons, including one season at #1. The show spent most of its run on NBC's Thursday night "Must See TV" line-up. Its widely watched series finale was broadcast on May 20, 1993. The show's 275 episodes have been successfully syndicated worldwide, and have earned 28 Emmy Awards from a then-record 117 nominations. The character Frasier Crane, played by Kelsey Grammer, was featured in his own successful spin-off, Frasier, which also ran for 11 seasons and included guest appearances by virtually all of the major, and some minor, Cheers characters. The only exceptions to this were Kirstie Alley and the deceased Nicholas Colasanto.
In 1997, the episodes "Thanksgiving Orphans" and "Home Is the Sailor" were respectively ranked No. 7 and No. 45 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. In 2002, Cheers was ranked No. 18 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.'

I then started looking at imagery that related to the television program, starting with the basics such as the actors involved within it.

 

George Wendt

 

John Ratzenberger

 

Kelsey Grammer

 

Rhea Perlman

 

 

Woody Harrelson

 

 

Ted Danson

 I then wanted to look into other iconic or famous television series from a similar time period to 'Cheers'.   

 

21 Jump Street

 

 

Saved By The Bell

 

Knight Rider

 

 The A Team

I then decided to look further into 'Cheers' and possible interesting facts about it. From doing so, I found that a big part of the program was the fact that it was filmed entirely within a pub. The pub from the program was based on an existing famous pub called 'The Bull and Finch'. I felt like this was a very interesting aspect of the program that it quite unique to it. I chose to proceed with this brief by looking into other famous pubs; ensuring I looked at British pubs meant I was keeping the project much more relevant to me.

Shots of the 'Cheers' set:

When I was searching for famous pubs, I cam across this list compiled by the company 'Famous Grouse' which they named Top 100 Famous Pubs in the UK. These are the selected few from North West England, further narrowing the project.

Famous Grouse Famous Pubs – Top 100 Famous Pubs (North West England)

http://www.e-brochure.org/TELEGRAPH/FAMOUS_100_PUBS/

The George and Dragon, Hudswell

The Plough Inn, Hutton Henry

Savile Arms, Dewsbury

Black Bull, Boroughbridge

Sheaf View, Sheffield

The Spotted Cow, Malton

Lord Crewe Arms Hotel, Blanchland

Cross Scythes, Totley

The Black Horse, Beamish

The Carts Bog Inn, Langley

The White House, Hartlepool

The Dry Dock, Leeds – Good Focal Point as its local and known

The Royal Oak, Old Malton

The Coach Inn, Lesbury

Abbey Inn, Leeds

Jar in Hand, Hull

The George and Wath, Ripon

The Falcon Inn, Arnclifee

West Riding Refreshment Rooms, Dewsbury

The Robin Hood, Jarrow

The Rosedene, Sunderland

The Yorkshire Bridge Inn, Bamford

The Minerva, Hull

The King’s Arms, York

Dry Dock in Leeds was an obvious choice to look into from these as it has now become a pub that is very familiar to me since living in Leeds. Anyone who visits Leeds and see's the Dry Dock pub will always remember it, normally as 'The pub that is a boat'. I decided to look further into Dry Dock and possibly look at why it has become so famous.
 

 

 

I then found out that Dry Dock is a part of 'Scream Pubs', a chain of pubs that stretch all across the country; amongst this list was another Dry Dock in Leicester:

 

I like the way in which they are very similar, almost as though they have been designed to look like an actual series of matching pubs. This idea of chain pubs having distinct aesthetics is something I find very interesting and decided to look further into it. 

I came across this artist, Mehmet Gozetlik, who creates beautiful sets of images. This is an interesting concept that I could try to incorporate within my own project.

 

Looking into the idea of chain pubs being instantly recognisable due to having similar aesthetics throughout the entire chain, I decided to look into the branding of Dry Dock; I looked at things such as promotions, menus etc. to get some sort of an idea of their branding. It seemed to me as though they had no real sense of identity and all of their ephemera appeared to have its own style and aesthetic. This meant that if you were to compare two separate fliers you wouldn't be able to tell they both came from the same place. This, as well as some consultation with my tutor, gave me the idea to re-brand Dry Dock in order to give it this consistent aesthetic throughout all of its design work.

 

 

Dry Dock Menu:

 

I came across these when looking at branding and logo design. They are iconic logo designs that have been translated into a different language. I find it interesting however how, even though you cannot read the writing, you can still instantly recognise the brands depicted. This reinforces my idea of strong branding being key to consistency and the importance of keeping similar aesthetics within a brand.

 

Playboy

 

Blackberry

 

Youtube

 

Red Bull

 

MasterCard

From looking on design blogs such as Pinterest I was able to gather these images. They have a very nautical feel to them which is something, due to the appearance of Dry Dock (it's a boat), I wanted to capture within my own designs.

 

I then, from this nautical theme, looked into sailors and the tattoo culture. Sailor Jerry has become very famous, even amongst people who know very little about tattoo's. This style of imagery has started to become somewhat of a trend recently and, due to my target audience being mainly that of young, 'hip' students, I feel this style of aesthetic would be very effective.

 

I also found these recipes cards produced in the style of Sailor Jerry's tattoo's. This is very relevant to my current project, as the menu's that I produce could be set out very similar in terms of appearance; the use of big headers and lines to mark out separate areas of the menu.