CORNER SHOP: a visual archive

This project began as a response to the pattern of gentrification I noticed in London, signified by a change in corner shops signage I saw on my way to university.

As I traversed from the outskirts of London, into the more gentrified areas, I noticed that the bright and vibrant imagery and typography in the shop windows was being slowly replaced with minimal ‘clean’, greige typography. I was interested in looking at how design can signify something a lot greater than just ‘aesthetics’.

Inspired by my own family, of which both sides ran corner shops, I decided to create an archive to celebrate these stories of struggle, migration and community. Using interviews from researchers working on a project with archiving site ‘Layers of London’, TheEverydayMuslim heritage archive, archival photographs from my family collection and the website, I hope to archive the stories of struggle, migration and cultural exchange.