Downtown Champaign Essay

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An everyday walk through the Downtown Champaign area is much more diverse in its structure than I had initially expected it to be. For my photo essay assignment, I took camera phone to downtown Champaign to capture different elements of the city. Compared to the city of Chicago, whose commercial spaces are taken by franchises, the downtown Champaign area has kept its traditional small town vibes with local companies while also taking on more modern commercial characteristics. The city has found a balance between the buildings and the fonts the accompany them which is what my photos revolve around. It was due to this idea that people passing through that downtown area experience both modern and traditional parts of the city.
Downtown Champaign isn’t a very big area, so when looking for trends, I thought I was limited in the themes I would be able to find. After walking around for a bit, snapping photos of anything I found to be interesting, I began to notice the patterns in the shops. The buildings looked like they had been around for more than a couple decades while their signage seemed to imply that they were quite new to the area. Other buildings looked brand new, while their signage seemed to be in an old style font. Even with their difference, they seemed to fit …show more content…

It is clear that top portion of the building is the traditional portion while the bottom has been renovated as a chic cafe. Watson’s incorporates the minimalist tradition building design in the lower portion of the building with simple colors and fonts. The building also uses the rectangular shape in the entire layout of the building. The building is a simple rectangle, the large windows on top are rectangular, the windows that let in light into the cafe are rectangular. Both styles of traditional and modern fit together because they play off each other's

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