Studio Brief 2 - Book Shop Aesthetics

As a form of research I began photographing the book shops I went in, to explore their aesthetic and to analyse what draws people into them.

The first I looked in was an independent bookshop found in London called 'South Kensington Books', this was fairly small but it was packed with books which gave it a 'homely' vibe. It also had extensive displays of books and book related gifts and cards which made the place seem friendly.

There were many people wandering the shop yet they all seemed older than students, and the younger people that were there were treating it more as an attraction (I know we were). It was almost like an independent shop of this caliber was seen as a rarity. The idea of being 'bookish' and hanging around in bookshops can be cool, but I know myself that that doesn't necessarily induce reading. Perhaps students need to be shown in some kind of format how the actual contents of books can be incredibly important and exciting.

The second bookshop I went to was the Waterstones in London Piccadilly, this was far bigger and had many different sections of books and areas. It even had two cafes and a bar on the top floor - this is something that definitely encourages people to go in a buy books.