fridays is a concept brand that mixes a sex shop with a nightclub. two places that both deal in the same thing, people letting go, but that usually sit at opposite ends of the high street and opposite ends of the night.

the idea started from how differently we treat them. a nightclub is something people talk about openly. you tell your mates where you’re going and post about it after. a sex shop is something most people still walk into quickly and leave even quicker. fridays asks what happens if you take away that awkwardness and give pleasure the same confidence a good night out has.

this project means a lot to me because i’m currently researching sex culture, and the same thing keeps coming up. loads of people feel intimidated or even scared of sex shops. they seem daunting and taboo, like places you’re not supposed to be seen going into, even though what’s inside is completely normal. fridays came out of wanting to change that feeling. if a sex shop could feel as welcoming and easy as walking into your favourite club, people might stop treating pleasure like something to be embarrassed about.

i’m not the first to try this. lynn comella’s vibrator nation (2017) traces how feminist sex shops in america, starting in the 1970s, turned the sex shop from a seedy back street space into somewhere welcoming, educational and open to everyone. fridays picks up that idea and adds the other half of the night. sarah thornton’s work on club cultures (1995) shows how nightclubs build communities with their own sense of belonging, and that’s exactly the feeling i want running through the shop as well as the club.

it works as a shop by day and a club by night, and sometimes both at once. on the nights the two overlap, the space turns into something you can’t really get anywhere else, with livestreams and big guests so the night reaches people far beyond whoever’s in the room.

fridays is an open community. the guests could be djs, music artists, physical artists, performers, anyone who has something to share. the people who make fridays what it is aren’t only the ones who walk through the door.

the name is pretty simple. friday is the best day of the week to go out, to have sex, or just to have a night in with yourself. it’s the real end of the week, when nobody’s watching the clock and you’re allowed to want things.

the look goes deliberately against the rest of the sex industry. no neon, no lips, no silhouettes. so far i’ve made a wordmark in a chunky slab serif and a set of hand drawn marks in thick black line, cheeky and suggestive without ever being explicit. they move from closed to open, which mirrors the way the space shifts from shop to club across the day.

also putting it in leeds #greatestplaceintheworld

references

comella, l. (2017) vibrator nation: how feminist sex-toy stores changed the business of pleasure. durham: duke university press.

thornton, s. (1995) club cultures: music, media and subcultural capital. cambridge: polity press.