STRATEGIES • for •
VISUAL RESEARCH How can Graphic design solve the social Issue of Traffic Congestion along Putney High Street
?
Contents: 4__Mission Statement 6__Stakeholder Map 8__Primary research 10__Primary Analysis 12__Stakeholder Interview 12 16__Dangers & Difficulties 18__Visual Language 20__site research 22__live traffic map diary 24__visual analysis 26__Legal Pollution levels 28__Pollution Experiemnt 30__Photo Ethnography 32__User Journey Mapping 34__Map Analysis 36__Visual observation 38__self ethnography 40__concurrent activities 2-
idea generation__46 Initial Concepts__48 Pollution Propaganda__50 Memory Loss Character__52 Dashboard Damage Meter__54 Mis Information__56 Memory Loss Brain__58 Pollution Lung__60 PBL Group Clustering__62 Dirty Prototyping__64 Visual Brain Dump__68 Rince and Repeat__70 Lost Poster__72 Reward Lost Poster__76 Notice Stickers__82 Memory Loss Update__86 Conclusion__90
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Bibliography__92 -3
Mission Statement:
My Aim is to find solutions to a social issue in my
area, using strategies for visual research to delve into, discover, define and directly inform my design outcomes. I have chosen to focus my attention on the issue of traffic congestion in Putney High Street. This issue is source to a series of issues and is one that effects almost every type of stakeholder: Local residents and Visitors, young and old, this is an issue everyone can relate to, as well as being of a personal motivation to defeat. I am learning that I am much more than an image maker / graphic designer, this project shows how we, as designers, can do much more than make things look pretty: we are problem solvers. I have dived into this project with absolutely no idea how or where it will lead. I am “lost in the woods� and have trusted the research methods taught to me to lead me to well informed solutions thats also make use my interests and skills in design.
Discover
Stakeholder Map
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By Looking at the local paper, Library notice
and who actually cares about these issues.
board, Putney community websites, and
Putting this information together visually allowed
speaking with my freinds , family and next door
me to identify Congestion being a major Issue,
neighbours I was able to build a picture of:
and the right choice to focus my efforts.on.
What issues exist in Putney, and who is effected,
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The Putney Society
Early on in this discover phase, I made contact with key figures Involved with this Issue:
com’ and is spearheading action for residents about the issues caused by Congestion.
The Local Council [Wandsworth Council] the Local MP for Putney [who is also now the minister for Transport] and this gentleman, who is a leading member of a Putney community website ‘Putneysw15.
Out of all of my polite emails and phonecalls, only Jonathan was forthcoming with information, but from an independant and honest discussion with him I was able to define that:
Discover
• Congestion causes lots of problems
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beyond just traffic jams. • The main issue is the Pollution Caused by the traffic. • That radical action is needed.
__Jonathan Callaway
Ben,
I
am increasingly of the view that radical action is needed. We plan to share our survey results with the council and meet them to discuss, but the council’s
view is that there is nothing they [the council] can do, it’s a national problem. So we will go to the press, local websites etc.
How radical is radical? You have to reduce traffic volume. This means a congestion charge or road pricing in one form or another. You have to persuade people to walk or cycle to take public transport. You have to make it easier for them to do this and more difficult and expensive for them to use their cars. You have to get more goods transported by rail. The political will is not however there for any of this – none of this will be popular! Even if people really knew how bad air quality is getting they still don’t want to get out of their cars.
Our MP has just been made Minister of Transport – maybe this is an opportunity?
Best wishes, Jonathan -9
Going on from this I looked into the effects of Congestion, and specifically what effects there are as a result of pollution caused by congestion. This is some of the key information that resonated with me taken from the below sources, the include scientific studies, even from abroad and the E.U. siting specific areas and just how bad pollution levels are across London, and shocked to discover Putney as being a hot-spot for this Issue. I was also shocked to discover that Pollution leads to brain damage, such as memory loss.
Discover
I had absolutely no idea about this information, this gives me a basis to justify that an awareness campaign of some sort would be most useful and appropriate.
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Links to Sources:
www.cleanairinlondon.org www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers ec.europa.eu/environment www.defra.gov.uk/environment www.londonair.org.uk www.healthyair.org.uk
WARNINGS! • Traffic-related air pollution causes inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain. - Richard Grey, Science Corrospondent, Telegraph U.K.
• The part of the brain responsible for memory / learning [the ‘Hippocampus’] suffers “Decreased Neuron growth” when exposed to Pollution. - Dr Melinda Power, dpt of epidemiology and environmental health, Harvard School of Public Health, U.S.A.
• “One of the most congested and polluted high streets in the country” - putneysw15.com
• “The [U.K. has] worst nitrogen dioxide [caused by pollution] levels in Europe” - European Air Commission
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Interviews Knowing to focus on Pollution and its effects, I
I made sure to get a fair and varied input for
took to the High Street to interview anyone and
my research, and spoke with all stakeholders.
everyone who would spare me the time of day
I spoke with drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers,
their thoughts on Pollution, but also the issue of padestrians, shop owners, cyclists, and as many traffic in general. This is what I learnt from it:
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people who were willing -or able to - talk.
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Dangers and Difficulties The most excruciating was attempting to speak
But i tried a different appraoch, and waited in a
to drivers, I had a list of questions prepared
car park, dressed smartly and looking as non-
for the 2 main stakeholders: Padestrians and
threatening as possible, waiting for drivers to
Drivers.
come out of their car so I could approach them. Each and every time I was either ignored or
But speaking to drivers felt very uncomfortable,
greeted with a look as if they were about to call
as well as being bloody dangerous: I had a very
the police. So I felt like some kind of mugger
small window of opportunity to actually speak
hanging around in solemn looking car parks.
to them as you can see from my observational drawings. I was waiting until the traffic built up
Speaking with Taxi drivers, and Bus drivers on
so I could step on the road, tap on the window
the other hand was fantastic. in general they are
and look as polite and non threatening as
very chatty and opinionated people and one bus
possible.
driver in particular had a lot to vent off his chest
At best, i had about 5-10 seconds of questions
about the traffic on the high street.
and answer time - if I got an actual response. So this was Limited.
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Visual Language Exploration I recorded and analysed two aspects of the high street with the camera :
This , the first, I gathered examples of the visual language of the high street, and put them together in a collage to discern the common traits of the graphics, and to inform my own graphic language and make a kind of ‘brand toolkit’
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Putting these collages together allowed me to see and make use of:
Bold BoldHelvetica Helvetica [most used in Black, on white, in a black box]
Clarendon. Clarendon [Used in the older road signs]
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Delve
Site Research
Key:
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PEDESTRIAN AREA
I originally wanted to make a ‘visual diary’ of these traffic jams. But felt It
made for a fairly dry diary, each day just
POLLUTION SOURCE
another photo of another traffic jam, I could not find much info in this, But I found that visiting the ‘site’ I could get
a ground zero view on problem areas to pollution, stress, congestion and I potentially target or find use for later on. noticed in some cases: danger, of people crossing the road illegaly Using what I had already gathered, I
having such a congested high street
analysed the photos and could take
for most of the day, each day of the
from it confirmation of the noise,
week. - 21
Live Traffic Map Diary
Monday Morning 08:36
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Monday Morning 09:24
Monday Evening 20:17
Eventually I did get through to the
council and spoke with somebody related to the transport department. I was promised to be sent information about the traffic in Putney, specifically things like how many road accidents and where, how many drivers / pedestrians hurt, Pollution Levels etc. I thought this would be a valuable source of information. Wandsworth Councils promise was not kept however many times I followed it up. But the general advice help line to the council, did actually give me some sound advice to follow up, one of them being how to find a live traffic map via Google. Using this I kept an effective visual diary for the traffic congestion at different times of the day. This was really useful being able to record and evaluate the levels of traffic, where congestion occurs, and at what time. By looking at the bigger picture, we can see the critical ‘choke points’ and we can see that the worst of the traffic happens specifically on the high street and the immediate area leading to the high street. yet Interestingly not a single faint shade of traffic for any of the side roads leading to and from the High Street.
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Visual Analysis Lightest -
Once a solid and varied collection was built,
order of light - heavy congestion. We can now easily
I took examples from different times from the
see the worst and best times for travel and we can
same day [Monday 10th October] and set about
confirm it is as bad in the immediate area at the
visually analysing them.
top of the high street for those travvelling towards the High Street into fulham and vice versa, but also
I traced the exact amount and location of the traffic
Wandsworth and Richmond.
congestion itself, as shown on the traffic google
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map and colour coded different times of the day. I
Importantly, we can see that the worst of it is infact
then took this information apart and organised it in
concentrated around Putney bridge itself.
-Heaviest
When put together as a whole, making a kind of ‘heat map’ of sorts, shows again the concentration of congestion and traffic focused in the bridge area and areas surrounding the top of the high street.
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Legal Levels of Pollution
Thanks to a link given to me by Jonathan Callaway [and not Wandsworth Council] I found a map showing the legal levels of pollution in London, visually showing the areas which are within E.U. pollution levels, and which areas ‘missed’ them. We can see that, in general, more places are within legal limits than not, which is a releif and
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surprise given how heavily populated and busy
Although we cannot access information for the
London is. But if we zoom in and pick out areas
specific amount and of what pollutants are in the
we can see that Putney is not only given a “X�
air, this does tell us in cold hard evidence that
mark as having missed it, Putney has been given 2 pollution is a serious and real issue in the Putney marks! 2 out of a total of 18! We can also see these High street area. are both concentrated on the High Street itself.
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Pollution Experiment
This is me wearing a mask in the high street: feeling like, and looking like an utter, utter tool.
ďƒ†
Going off a project one of our tutors talked about, I ordered some face masks from Boots. I wanted to visually record the pollution in the air by wearing a mask for certain amounts of time at specific times of the day shown in my traffic diary. The plan was to wear the mask for the time it takes to walk up the high street and back, and again for exactly and hour and record the visible pollution captured in the mask I would of otherwise breathed in. I hoped this would be a shocking visual to the problem. Unfortunately after an hour of wearing the masks while conducting other research tehniques, absolutely no difference was visible, But the ideas from this, when bulding concepts and referring back, fed into improving this idea and trying a different approach to recording the pollution for a longer period of time that wouldnt damage my health.
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- BEFORE
- AFTER
Poor results led to me scrapping the method and trying something else...
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Photo Ethnography
When I first set out to document the traffic and record the general area, after analysis [pg20-21] I noticed something about how pedestrians interact with the traffic and how
they respond to having a massively busy road artery running right through the high street.
I had been concentrating on the traffic before, so took a moment to just observe everything in general and noticed so often people running accross the road ‘illegaly’ not at one of the several road crossings. So went to see if this was not unsusual and see what info this would bring this didnt really tell me much more other than people do it, and lots of different types of people. So I set about trying something different and going a little deeper with it....
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User Journey Mapping
I followed, observed, and recorded peoples behaviour towards the congestion / high street / public transport / road crossings.
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Map Analysis
ď ž
Using a research method taught
their day to day comings and goings,
to us in the first year, I basically
there is a lot more freedom to being
followed a variety of people for
a pedestrian.
between 2-20 minuites recording where they go what they do and
It would be interesting to see if that
using it to see how they interact
would change once people knew
around thehigh street.
the kind of information I have found out, or if more people walk instead
After building up a fairly solid cross
of driving, would that create a
section and feeling a bit concerned
pedestrianised form of congestion?
about blatantly following people, I
The touchpoints are generally,
organised the results and overlayed
pausing to cross the road ‘illegally’
them to see what pattern emerges I
and stopping to go home or into the
could see that the congestion does
main high street.
not to actually really effect people in
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Visual Observation
Taking Inspiration from Keri Smith’s ‘How To Be An Explorer of the world’, I took ideas from her research methods ‘sound map’ / ‘people watching’ / I basicly just observed peoples behaviour at a level crossing. I waited and watched for just 12 minuites to give me enough information to record. I noticed most the amount of people who dont wait to cross the road, and this is a high percentage. This shows to me that people are busy or simply impation. This also shwos me how busy the high street for all types of traffic and proves how this specific area is a bottle neck for all sorts of stakeholders’ journeys.
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Amount of people crossing Dangerously
Amount of people Waiting
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Self Ethnography
Recording sounds, smells, and just about anything unique. I moved this time, instead of staying still, following an average journey made up from the user journeys research and sketched what I saw and experienced in an hour.
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Concurrent Activities Looking into what else has been done
to help combat congestion Pollution...
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In london, a handful of new inititatives are occuring especally in the the run up to the 2012 Olympics.
In the past radical action was taken as a result of the infamous ‘pea-soup’ smogs from pollution, one in particular caused 4,000 premature deaths in the space of 2-3 days! This led to massive overhaul of the type of fuels that could be burnt in fires. Today, initiatives are starting up to convert cars to be powered by gas, electic powered cars already exist, Low Emission zones are being brought in as well as simple sound advice such as switching you engine off instead of letting it idle. Im pleased to have found some initiatives that arent for and about money and profit such as the existing congestion charge.
This Information Video from the 1950’s recommends England to “make the most of the weekends and get some fresh air” as the official advice about the awful pollution problems.
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Air-Dropped Traffic girls
North Korea’s ludicrous answer to traffic problems is to literally air-drop these traffic control girls from military aircraft. Jonathan Callaway recommended radical action being required, although bonkers, this is as high as i should be aiming.
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Urban Interventions Urban Interventions is a book I
was recommended by one of our tutors that has definately been a
big source of inspiration. This book has almost defined a new genre; ‘Urban Interventions’ is a collection of temporary pieces of design, and is basicly street art with a bit of intelligence and a social concience. I find this very inspiring towards my project, as this project is for a good cause, and for also thinking beyond formats and almost using the high street itself as a format or medium of some kind to contribute to the outcomes.
Im particuly inspired how these designs take something existing and use it to communicate their designs, adapting adding to and changing the visual language of the environment its commenting on.
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Idea Generation At this stage, anything goes, we suspend belief and set about a series of idea generation processes In class and in our PBL groups. From this petri dish emerge a massive variety of ideas to cover different angles and approaches and help us to think differently.
“Successful Designers learn to embrace this back-and-forth, knowing that the first idea is rarely the last.� -Ellen Lupton 46 -
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Initial Concepts From the utterly outrageous to the down to earth, this phase of idea generation is not about what is possible or realistic, it’s just about forming some ideas and letting them grow into something, or just scrap it and focus on another, this page is of some of the scraps:
Cars made up to look like brains and staging a ‘banger - racing’ event to show a link between cars causing brain damage.
A death tally like on the old photos of Spitfires in the battle of britain showing how much damage the car has caused.
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Nuclear Powered car that mutates children, kills everything and is rediculously dangerous
Sticker set to go over car exhausts, to draw attention to the fumes it creates and create shock value with a childs face over it.
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Pollution Propaganda
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Propaganda Air Dropped by the North Koreans, perhaps as some kind of propaganda to try and make the west weak. Also as an obvious series of lies about pollution. This is to encourage people to think and question about pollution and congestion.
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Memory Loss the Character
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The original Idea behind this is to find ways to
heavily otwards my interests yet still ommunicating
make use of my interests in image making and
a meessage and making use of thebased on the
communicate what has resonated most strongly
research so far. I intended that by personifying the
with me: Pollution causing memory loss. We have
issue I could use that to tell storys and teach this
been encouraged to tailor this project towards our
info in an engaging visual way, perhaps form into a
own graphic interests and this one balances more
graphic novel of some kind for different age groups
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Dashboard Damage Meter
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A series of dashboard meters, similar to the amount of petrol is left in the tank, as that level goes down the levels for the lung / brain damage would go up. Installed as actual functioning meters, or even a sticker of some kind to get the idea accross.
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Mis-Information
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‘Mis-Information Brochure from the ‘Oil.Co’
the facts I have learnt but completely reversed.
came about continuing on from the idea of a
I felt that sending these out en masse, or in
‘propaganda’ leaflet from North Korea. When
a car park would not be beneficial to me as I
discussing the idea further, the elements of telling
couldnt record people’s reactions without waiting
the complete opposite of what is true had merit,
immediately by the car all day. So I posted a dozen
by blatantly being untrue it was agreed that would
in the cars I could see in my street and gleefully
make people stop thinkg and ask ‘hang on a
waited for them to come out of their houses to
minuite.’
work so I could photograph them reading it and nicely ask them their thoughts. As with all good
But coming from a North Korean apprach seemed
plans it went to s**t almost immediately when it
a bit wrong and ripe for negative interpretation. So
started raining, so I gathered them back to do later
in a PBL group we discussed who else would lie
in the day, which I did. Later in the day I waited and
to you about pollution? We discussed the angle
watched, time passed I got bored, did some other
of who would be the people who profit from it and
work, checked and checked again and they hadnt
would therefore want people not to worry about
been touched. So I gathered them back to speak
pollution, and who are people/organisations the
with my closest neighbours about this project im
general population dont trust?
doing and to ask their thoughts.
So I engineered a completely fake Oil
It was felt that yes, it was a good approach, with
Conglomerate; “Oil.Co’ and this brochure about
some more glossy design closely associated with
why pollution is good for you, litrally translating all
a conglomerate, but the fact its a brochure, hardly
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Memory Loss Brain
Developed originally from the memory loss
character, I looked again at the Urban Interventions work and thought about how I could use the traffic itself to
communicate the fact that pollution caused by traffic, causes memory loss.
So from this I explored ways of having something that would fade as a direct result of the traffic. So as a prototype design I had the image of a brain itself to represent memory loss and brain damage and test types of weak media that would fade quickly. I chose flour, and to draw it directly onto the main high street road so the traffic problem would directly effect the graphic. From my Live Traffic Map diary I knew Sundays are a quiet day for traffic, so the roads would be clear. If the roads are clear, there is less chance of me being hit by a car - and less chance being seen and caught! So I snuck out sunday night at 4am, the roads were completely clear and went to a spot I had scouted during the day; A spot bang in the middle of the high street, where the bus garage is, and where 3 mian pedestrian crossings are, this way I could acheive maximum viewage. I opened up the bottom of a bag of flour and drew the shape of a brain, took some photos and quietly left until the next day. I could see it worked instantly before I left when a bus ran over it, but by the next day as you can see, it became very faint indeed. A successful temporary instillation piece, but I want to explore a media with better logevity that still fades.
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4am Monday 7.11.11
Sunday 04:30 am
Monday 11:00 am I properly did sneak out and secretely draw this in the middle of the night, -exciting!
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Pollution Gathering Lung
"The natural environment provides an accessible tool for generating authenticity.� -Ellen Lupton, Graphic Design Thinking:Beyond Brainstorming.
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Taking the idea of the pollution meter for the car dashboard, and looking
back to my failed attempts to collect
and record pollution particules in my pollution experiemnet [Pg 28 - 29] I
made a piece that would change and react to the issue im dealing with. Similarly to the memory loss brain, this is a piece of design with an Urban interventions twist. Knowing that collecting pollution particles in terms of hours just isnt going to work, and by me breathing the pollution to collect them is just seriously unhealthy, I tested a way I could do this longer term, and without the brain damage. I prepared an edition of lung posters, and making a lung shaped stencil so I could spray-glue the shape of a lung onto the poster. The Idea being the lung visual would emerge over time. I then collected the remaining posters 3 weeks later. They were disgusting, yellowed, the pollution could be felt Like with the brain, I snuck out at night to stick up the posters.
to the touch. The visual wasnt as strong and striking as I hoped, but still a success, A stronger glue was recommended for me to try.
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PBL: Group Clustering
In class and in PBL groups we assessed each others work and how they could be improved, as well as testing different media to improve the results of my prototypes, It was put to me to consider a caption or tagline to go with my posters, and offer some kind of advice as well as raising awareness.
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I found this of great difficulty as my early
From this I created a series of rough & ready
discover research had shown this issue is
protoypes to show my PBL groups and a series
literally imossible to solve and there is nto a
of class speed - dating style presentations...
quick and easy asnwer to just solve it or offer help to people, so I found this very challenging. But discussion helped, and that I didnt actually have to solve this issue, but I can still help it.
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‘Dirty’ prototyping
To add a positive spin I was looking at what I needed to encourage, not discourage. So from here started bringing in info about the benefits of cycling / walking against driving. I was also attempted to deliver the same information as before, but from a more positive angle. At this stage I found myself struggling for answers, as my research showed there just are’nt any. But there was one; to look at not solving the issue, but perhaps re-directing it, going back to my research I reminded myself of one particular interview where a couple who cycled to the area told me how they take side roads, and how another gentlemen mentioned how his route just doesnt even go through Putney anymore.
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•
Experiment with type & its reaction to pollution
•
Experiment with Ink / Media / Format
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Strong point, make memory loss a clear message
•
Not all negative, some positive spin
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I mocked up a range of approached and ideas, From showing and discussing these I learnt to use:
•
No bad language
•
Targeting Drivers
• •
66 -
Affiliated with existing organisation Both positive and Negative points
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Visual Brain Dump Taking into account the suggestions and discussion held in the studio and PBL group sessions, I set about making another round of less ‘dirty’ prototypes, one with a little more time spent, a little more thought, and backed up by what was learnt from the discussions. I was also quite inspired by a spat of curious advertising around Putney, this ‘fantastic cleaners’ advert - litrally cleaned into the ground-brilliant! I liked this as this has a note of urban interventionism to it, but importantly, this would fade over time, and take alot of time to erase. With that in mind I set out some designs to have lazer cut or to at least propose the idea. I felt safe with the lungs, It was a case of making the required changes and improvements by refining the graphic language needed and impregnating it with alternatives / positive information. The idea is there, just needs polishing, and these are outcomes to just getting the ideas out to be assessed and discussed in our final sessions.
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Inspired by this method of ‘clean graffiti’ I wanted to use that to ‘paint’ my stencilled design to the road surfaces of putney
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Rince & Repeat
I felt that by continuing on with the brain and lung poster /
instillation ideas, I wasnt trying anything extremely new or different. For example when I looked again at my improved memory loss
brain, I was using a format and approach already done before, in
albeit with my own work and intention, but the outcome would still be similar. The lung poster had changed but not drastically, I feel it would be better use of time to test some different outcomes,
to present alternatives and if anything, have some to be able to
guage the success against each other as well as trying something completely different with some of these existing ideas.
I also wanted in some small part to answer the question of how this could fit into my interests and ‘style’ as a graphic designer and image maker? So now I went to revise the work I had done by doing the 6 thinking men process I wanted to explore how could it be done better? What skills do I have that I can use? How can my skills improve pollution issue in Putney high street? How can my skills communicate in a way nobody else can or has done before? I was still inspired by taking on board some kind of Urban Intervention twist, and went again to look at the graphic language of the high street, and started thinking how I could subvert existing formats and everyday language into something not so every day and memorable...
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Man and Van poster, see these everywhere and this 'Lost Pidgeon’ poster by David Shrigley. I could use elements of both to convey an important message in an exciting new way.
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‘Lost’ Posters
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My traffic diary really came in handy now, I used them to inform where to place the posters, and on location I chose spots visible by both pedestrians and drivers.
I tested these out into the world, feeling more
I placed these strategically by the high pollution
comfortable sneaking out to do this kind of stuff. sites I defined in my research, and in areas I could target drivers. From prior observation for Going on advice from Keri Smith’s ‘Guerilla Art
the interviewsto target drivers to interview them
Kit’ book I made a point to make these pieces
in areas such as car parks and quite residential
temporary and non-harmful, and also placed them
streeswhile not in their car as I found much earlier
respectfully, ie: not glued to peoples cars / property
how dangerous and unyeilding that is] of attempting
/ shop fronts, it is not in my interest to vandalise
to interview people in car parks, I knew that would
property and cause any criminal dam ainly so I can
be a safe bet to place this new edition.
come back and do it again.
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Reward Lost Posters
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The revised lost poster contains more useful information as well as raising awareness. It also has the added element of a supporting blog I set up with relecvant info helpful advice I have found during my research.
Putneyno2.tumblr.com
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It was at this stage i found my ‘user journey maps’ research most useful -being able to identify the traffic routes people take, where they turn, where they go - and so where to place this new edition.
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My lost posters were good, but not good enough, so going on instant feedback I created a new edition with a ‘reward’ a reward of information for better health and how to make a difference. I put the previous edition of posters up after dark, as there was no need to do it in the dead of night again. As I was putting up the posters I found people quite curious about what this was about and what I was doing, so I was lucky enough to get some instant feedback, I planned to show these to my freinds and family who have nothing to with design and guage their reaction, which i did. But having almost live feedback was great: Overall it was felt that the illustrative approach was fun and light hearted and people liked it and felt it was almost humerous, but with a serious undertone. Brilliant, but the message was not quite powerful enough, there was little more to go on, not enough information, it was’nt going to change the world. So adapted it to have more information and play with the ‘lost’ idea, with a reward of awareness, better health and advice to combat congestion issues. it also has a blog link I set up with advice and info i have encountered while researching.
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It worked! Got peoples attention, although i could make it a lot clearer
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Notice Stickers WARNING! Traffic pollution harms your brain.
WARNING!
NO2 ILLEGAL LEVELS OF
IN THIS HIGH STREET Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2]
Is caused by Traffic Pollution.
For help visit:
putneyno2.tumblr
• • • •
THINK!
Long Traffic Jams Its Quicker to Walk More Trains & Bus Pollution is causing Brain Damage. DO YOU REALLY NEED TO
For help visit:
putneyno2.tumblr
CAUTION!
16 Mins
DRIVE TODAY
By car through Putney high street.
For more info visit:
TO WALK
?
putneyno2.tumblr
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This can cause Memory Loss.
MUCH BETTER
- putneyno2.tumblr -
THINK!
NO2 ILLEGAL LEVELS OF
WARNING!
IN THIS HIGH STREET
Did you really need to Drive here today ?
Pollution Causes Memory Loss
putneyno2.tumblr
putneyno2.tumblr
For alternatives visit:
For help visit:
NOTICE!
NOTICE!
NITROGEN
PUBLIC HEALTH
- illegal levels of -
DIOXIDE - in Putney high street -
THE INVISIBLE PUBLIC HEALTH
CRISIS
For more info visit: putneyno2.tumblr
AN INVISIBLE
CRISIS
N 2 Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2]
Is caused by Traffic Pollution. This can cause Memory Loss.
putneyno2.tumblr
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I stuck these stickers at specific touch points for drivers coming into and leaving the area. Such as this parking ticket machine and in residential areas where people would get in to their car
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Along with the blog and the revised rewarding
again through my traffic diary / observations / user
lost posters I created a series of ‘WARNING’ and journey mapping. I deliberately printed these on ‘NOTICE’ style sign sticers, ripping off existing
non-waterproof sticker paper, so they would fade
high street signage language to convey my
and degrade over time. I did this to keep in mind
message in an approach that would feel familiar,
Keri Smith’s recommendation for enviromental
have a voice of authority to it but be completely
awareness, to generally by a well behaved urban
different to what exists that is similar and to co-
interventionist and importantly because by having
exist with the posters.
it fade contributes to its message of raising awareness for pollution causing memory loss.
I put these up at specific touch points for drivers
Doing this I felt it would be appropriate to revise the
when out of their car and when stuck in traffic, also
memory loss brain instilation in a refreshing way to
viewable by cyclists and pedestrians. Identified
co-exist further with this existing work...
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Memory Loss Brain 2
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After Discussom The revised memory loss brain takes what works from the existing prototype and makes it better with more information. I traced a map of the high street, looking at the side roads people have made use of and also making note of other key roads that lead to key bridges not so far away.
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I snuck out again and this time with an accomplice to keep an eye out for any cars that might hit me and chose an environment that only has drivers, and has drivers looking more at the floor-looking for a parking space .
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Brain timeline Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
This approach is clearly more effective that the previousattempt, chalk allows for greater control when drawing so the image being tested is much more like a brain and contains far more information useful to drivers, raising awareness and still an interesting and it fades at an excellent rate. it does fade-but not drastically, messages can still be read - 89
Conclusion
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Although I found through research and working, on this issue that this Issue I chose is very nearly impossible to solve, I can still argue that my proposals and existing work in the high street have already led to a positive impact on some scale. We can argue that design definately has a role for social change. When present to see peoples reactions, when interviewing, even when generally talking about this issue and what I’ve learnt people are genuinely interested and shocked. I feel even taking this on as a sole individual against this massive problem, Its a problem people can get behind when they learn of the effects. Short of literally “building a giant flyover over the entire high street� these appraches can contribute to helping, if not solving, the issue of congestion and its resulting pollution and health effects.
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Bibliography Hyper Linkage:
www.putneysociety.org.uk
www.putneysw15.com
www.wandsworth.gov.uk
www.cleanairinlondon.org
www.brokencitylab.org/notes
www.designingdublin.com
www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers
ec.europa.eu/environment
www.defra.gov.uk/environment
www.londonair.org.uk
www.healthyair.org.uk
www.ideo.com/work/social-mobiles
www.servicedesigntools.org
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Books:
Smith, K. Guerilla Art Kit. Princeton Architectural Press (2007)
Smith, K. How To Be an Explorer of the World. Penguin (2010)
Lupton, E. Grpahic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming. Princeton Architectural Press (2010)
R, Klanten and M, Hübner. Urban Interventions: Personal Projects in Public Spaces. Die Gestalten Verlag (2010)
J, Visocky O’Grady and K, Visocky O’Grady. A Designer’s Research Manual: Succeed in Design by Knowing Your Clients and What They Really Need. Rockport Publishers (2009)
G, Lucas and M, Dorrian. Guerrilla Advertising: Unconventional Brand Communication. Laurence King (2006)
G, Lucas. Guerrilla Advertising 2: More Unconventional Brand Communications. Laurence King (2011)
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