mnemonic design labs
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Hotel Europe

HOTEL EUROPE

 

The Hotel Europe tells a story like no other Vancouver address. In fact, it’s a Never Ending Story — like one of the many films in which it features. Built 1908-1909 it was Canada’s first reinforced concrete structure. This diminutive ICON with a towering reputation stands only six stories high — at perhaps the most impressive triangle in the city at 43 Powell in Gastown

 

  • Hand-Drawn Typographic Vector Illustration

    Hand-Signed and Numbered Gicleé Archival Printing
    Framed in FSC-Certified Coated White Birch

    Original Gallery Edition / Limited to 20

    CAD 500.00 Unframed / 700.00 Framed

    16 x 20 in / 41 x 51 cm

  • Each ICON sprouts in my photography. An ICON is approximately two years of process — from concept to completion

    I carefully draw out a graphic silhouette by hand. After detailed study I choose which adornments to include — taking particular interest in ones that can be missed by a passerby on the street

    Next I extrude elements from the building’s “face”. This period in process feels like an extended ballroom dance. There are twists, turns and dips — I go back and forth, and back again. I aim to leave plenty of space for the typography — which I consider the entry point for a viewer — and still include enough of each ICON’s definitive decorative elements. I’m humbled when viewers recall a personal dialogue or history with an ICON. To allow for this, I’m compelled to ensure familiarity

    I select a quote after boulevards of research. I learn from this meditative and often lengthy time in process. Ultimately my choice offers an emergent playfulness between the quote, or the quoted, and what each ICON outwardly presents — rather than be a quote about the ICON itself. Sometimes it complements, sometimes it counters. Sometimes in humour. Sometimes in critique

    Each letter in each composition is unique — hand manipulated as a self fashioned typography. For colour I created the blue exclusively for the limited edition — suspended among Arctic, Cerulean, and Sapphire. It speaks to the hue we discover anew — each time the clouds lift — in the high latitude low angle light of Vancouver’s shockingly alluring sky. The three hints of clouds are a fun unifying feature across this series. I use their placement to convey the perceived presence of each ICON relative to a viewer from the streetscape

  • Originally a rare fire-proof hotel in the era it was built, the Hotel Europe now provides affordable housing in a rapidly gentrifying district