Flight Club
Edinburgh Stained Glass
A fairground themed eight-panel stained glass window design for the shopfront of the Flight Club in Edinburgh.
The Brief
I was tasked with coming up with a design for a stained glass window that would then be built by a fabricator in Northern Ireland.
The brief for this design was to create something eye-catching (to stand out against the blue shopfront), blending modern with more traditional stained-glass design.
This was because the Edinburgh venue was opening in the St James Quarter shopping centre, rather than a Victorian style building where Flight Clubs had typically been located prior to this venue.
Early design versions including the switch from 12 panels to 8.
Challenges
There were two main challenges of this project.
The first was the limitation set by the budget, the more individual pieces of glass the higher the cost.
The second was the limited availability of glass colours. There was a palette of 16 different colours to choose from.
Taking this into consideration I created a design that was simple but stayed true to Flight Club's brand.
design process
Flight Club as a brand has an aesthetic that blends the heritage of the Victorian Pub with the fun of the fairground.
Initially there was some indecision over which style to lean into and this resulted in a shift in direction early on.
Due to the high cost of this project there was a careful balancing act in satisfying the wants of the stakeholders. It was important that the CEO, Creative Director and Head of Interior Design were aligned on the vision.
As the venue hadn't been built during the design process I was able to use the Interior Design teams' SketchUp model to present the mockups.
Mockup using the Interior Design teams' SketchUp model.
Final design
The final design, along with a production guide, that was sent to Stuart to begin the build process.
Build process
The window was built by Stuart, the fabricator, who Flight Club had used for previous stained glass builds.
Once the design was approved I sent the production guide, detailing dimensions and the names of the glass to use, to Stuart. He would send back a photo of each window once he'd cut the glass to check the correct type of glass had been used.
If there were no changes he would then go on to the next stage, adding the leading and soldering the pieces in place.
installation
After the window had been built it was shipped to Edinburgh to be installed in the shopfront where it will hopefully stay for years to come.