Updated: 3.02.2023
Making a shop inspired by Diagon alley is both an exciting and tough opportunity. While thinking about what my shop would be about, I went back to the original shops and movies I have grown up with to find something unique. I find myself fascinated by the moving magic photographs. I found potential in the idea of a camera shop combined with a studio for taking pictures. The ground floor will be all about selling different cameras while the 2nd and 3rd floors will be about taking pictures. I will create different patterned walls which will be acting as backgrounds for the pictures along with the windows. There will be static cameras positioned so that the pictures can be easily taken.
I gathered references for the exterior, interior, and some props from Pinterest. I made a sketch for my shop based on three buildings. The main inspiration came from this The Migliavacca Mansion (built in 1890 in Napa, California) combined with the facade above the windows from Flourish and Blotts (a sketch made by JMR (Johanna Mesa Ramos)) and I took the window design from the original Olivander’s shop for wands. I used Adobe Illustrator to create my sketch because I have had previous experience using this software, so I feel comfortable with it.
The next thing I did was research different fonts suitable for the Victorian era and the world of Harry Potter. I found overall 8 fonts meeting my criteria and I narrowed them down to 4. I was playing with two names for my shop, so I tried them with the 4 different fonts. I found that the Albrega Changes Font (designed by 177Studio) worked best with my vision for the concept, so I settled for this font. I downloaded all the fonts I liked for free from the font space (https://www.fontspace.com/albrega-changes-font-f85933).
When it comes to the name of my shop I had two names in mind. The first one that came up to me immediately after I thought of making a shop for cameras and pictures was “Bibidi Bobidi Booth”. This name comes from Cinderella’s godmother, who in the child animation sang a song named “Bibidi Bobidi Boo”, because of that many people may not understand and relate to that. The second name came from one of my friends and the original suggestion was “Focus Photos” based on the phrase “Hocus Pocus”. I decided to save one of the words in the phrase00 so that it is more recognizable, so the final name I decided on is “Hocus Photos”.
The Harry Potter franchise, J. K. Rowling, or any other current or future copyright holders, are not affiliated with or endorsed by me. Harry Potter's Diagon Alley was only an inspiration for this project.
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