The Magnolia Monstrosity

Slurpp has been based out of creative co-working space Fleet Collective for about 2 years now. It’s a great space to share with a really diverse range of creative people. Since it’s creation 5 years ago Fleet has undergone a bit of a transformation, the photo below shows the space before the work started.

Located above Brew Dog, we are on the top floor of what used to be the Dundee Chambers of Commerce building. These days the space looks a little different.

The space is filled with things that are as weird and wonderful as the people who occupy it. From the cardboard arches that mimic and extend the architectural beams to the gigantic parasols and the many trinkets scattered around including some adorable porcelain French bulldogs.

Despite the great working space and atmosphere, the entrance stairwell to the office has been my real bug bear over the past couple of years. This is how it looked up until a couple of months ago.

One of the key values of Slurpp is ‘the promise to never be beige’ and coming in to this magnolia monstrosity everyday made me feel a bit like a fraud. So a few months ago I decided it was time to make a change by putting together a concept design, getting the backing of the Fleet members and recruiting volunteers to help bring the concept to life.

The stairwell consists of 5 flights of stairs, 4 landings, a couple of doorways and some beautiful windows. Being a former church and spanning 3 floors it has quite an incredible vertical height. So tall in fact, that without a proper scaffolding set up there was no way of painting anywhere close to the ceilings. So as much as I wanted to eradicate all of the magnolia it just wasn’t going to be possible and this became a major consideration when creating the designs.

Although the stairwell isn’t part of the actual working space it’s still an area that’s used frequently and really shapes people’s first impression of Fleet. It’s also the first thing every member of the collective sees when they come in in the morning. So I wanted the design to have real impact and leave a lasting impression.

In order to start the design process I photographed the stairwell, piecing together the images and set about layering up concepts to see how they looked. Initially I took inspiration from Dazzle Ships but soon realised this might be a little too in your face and potentially nausea inducing! So I paired it back a bit and moved towards using simpler geometric shapes. The sharp angular nature of the shapes worked really well with the structure of the stairwell and what really started to interest me was how the shapes lead your eye up the stairwell. Here are some of the initial designs overlaid on photos of the staircase.

I decided to go with a base layer of a sort of duck egg blue, complimenting both the yellow of the Fleet logo and the existing magnolia. The idea of the base layer was to break up these large boring areas of magnolia creating new shapes and angles. As the light blue encounters a corner between 2 walls or a window it sharply changes angle. The second layer of dark grey was created to be much more bold and abstract. Utilising the vast vertical space and creating more shapes and angles by overlapping the base layer.

Here are a few snaps of the work being done on the base coat. It was surprisingly simple to mask out the areas even if it did require a bit of ladder acrobatics. One thing I was really happy with at this stage was how the colours and shapes interacted with the architectural features like doors and windows. It just made the whole thing feel much more harmonious.

The dark grey shapes proved to be a little more tricky. Getting the angles and spacing right on the masking of the shapes took a fair bit of time. We even had to develop a technique using a broom for those hard to reach areas.

One piece of the design I’ve not really mentioned yet is the focal point at the top of the stairs. On the final landing, to the left of the door to the office I wanted something to signify you had arrived and what better way to do this than a giant yellow circle? The massive incarnation of the Fleet logo came together brilliantly and I have to say a big thanks to Cavan and Gareth for sorting all the masking, painting and vinyl for this.

Now for some finished shots of the finished stairwell in all its angular glory.

So that’s it, if you fancy having a nosey yourself then just give me a shout or if you fancy getting your own office space spruced up then get in touch (ryan@madebyslurpp.com). We’ve also still got a few desks up for rent here at Fleet Collective if you’d like to come and join us, more details here.