Project 1: Poster Description

The driving force behind this poster was the idea of carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality is defined as the reduction of carbon or greenhouse gas emissions in in order to compensate for or offset an emission made elsewhere. Many European cities have decided to implement this idea of carbon neutrality in order to create a more environmentally friendly city. By using alternative resources and technologies, the carbon neutral initiative not only keeps cities clean but also stimulates the economy. These technologies also help cities save money because from an economic standpoint solar power and wind power are essentially free and those are both ways in which cities can reduce their carbon output.

CO2 emissions are a major cause of air pollution within cities. This poster tackles the issue of city smog by showing how a carbon offset, such as wind energy, can reduce smog within cities, making for a much more pleasant living environment for city dwellers.

The purpose of this poster was to bring about ideas and ways in which city dwellers can contribute to their environment in a positive way. Thinking about the ways in which we can make cities cleaner and more environmentally friendly, ideas of recycling, repurposing, reducing and reusing came to mind. By combining these ideas, smart cities can stay cleaner for its citizens, creating nicer living conditions for their inhabitants.

This poster focuses on two ideas: recycling and reducing. Combining text and imagery, the poster clearly states, “Recycling.” However, the poster tackles more than just recycling. The image of the bike resonates with the idea of reducing gasoline use. Thus, it shows how creating a more environmentally friendly city requires more than just recycling or biking–it requires citizens to do both simultaneously in order keep the environment clean for its inhabitants.

Project 1: Progress

I feel like I finally have a grip on this project. I have something fairly solid made up on the computer, but now I'm stuck as to what idea specifically I want to commit to. One poster idea tackles the idea of air pollution from CO2 emissions, while the other sparks ideas of reuse, reduce, repurpose, and recycle. Each poster has their strengths and weaknesses, but pushing past the weaknesses to create and effective and meaningful design has proven to be rather difficult. 

Poster Idea 1

The focus of this poster is air pollution and by using wind power as a means of energy is a good way to prevent further air pollution in cities and push a carbon neutral initiative, which many European cities are attempting to implement. It also tackles issues from an economic standpoint–wind is free! 

Poster Idea 2

While I find this poster to be quite strong, I'm afraid it will not translate in the European world. I also am not sure of whether the ideas of reuse, repurpose, recycle, etc. are even relevant in Europe, making it very difficult for me to even consider submitting this poster to the Posterheroes contest. 

Project 1: Narrowed Focus

After countless sketches, internet searches, and discussions with fellow classmates, I have finally found an idea to work with for the Posterheroes project! After researching various topics and issues within the four categories (economy, living, mobility, and people), I decided to tackle the idea of carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality aims to cancel out or reduce carbon emissions by replacing harmful energy resources with something "clean" in order to protect our planet and ozone layer. These clean resources are considerably more cost-effective than traditional energy resources, which could save cities money.

Idea 1

Thinking about carbon neutrality, I developed a typographic logo of sorts. It includes the CO2 symbol with an equal sign in the center of the O, which is the symbol for neutrality. Knowing I wanted to incorporate this logo, I decided to think about alternative energy resources, including wind power, which is what I ultimately chose to focus on. Thinking about CO2 emissions and what that does to the air, I decided to cut out a "clean," sky-blue windmill in the midst of a smoggy sky, indicating that by using alternative resources, our skies will be less foggy, grey and more clear and blue.

Playing off the designs below, I continued to push these designs further and further, refining them as I went along, choosing new typefaces and incorporating my own photograph to get the smog effect I desired. 

Idea 2

Because I am not easily satisfied, I decided to work with another idea and concept in regards to carbon neutrality. I wanted to create a recipe of sorts to live life carbon neutral. I will admit, I am struggling with this concept a little more, just because I feel that in order for it be effective, it must be extremely witty! So over the weekend, this will require a lot of thinking and sketching yet, but for now this is what I have. 

Project 1: The Beginning

Posterheroes is a project specially designed for those in the creative field to further conceptualize and promote the idea of “Smart Cities.” The idea of Smart Cities stems from issues regarding energy, healthy living, and pollution, as well as many other problems in which Smart Cities attempt to tackle. There are several major categories that help make up a Smart City. These categories include economy, living, mobility, and people, with each having unique indicators. To the left is a concept map of the indicators for one of these essential categories.

For our first project, we are to creating poster to be submitted to the Posterheroes competition, which is based on the indications of a smart city, and thus promoting a specific indicator or idea. The four major categories for a Smart City are rather broad and the ideas that stem from these categories are also quite broad, so concepts and ideas must be narrowed down further in order to create a compelling poster. In order to grasp this concept of Smart Cities, I did further research to get more specific ideas about its goals and ideals. Furthermore, the competition is based in Europe, which means further research must be done in order to understand the European population in order to gain a firmer understanding of the issues for these cities.

For this particular project, the target audience is a hip, urban-dwelling, youthful demographic, as well as European. To gain a better understanding as to who our audience is, I looked a European design and began doing some research on European cities.

Ultimately, the message for this poster project is call for action. It’s about getting the city dwellers to think critically about their impact on their city as well as their well-being. It’s a very social driven project, calling for change and suggesting ideas on how to live a happier and healthier life within an urban setting.

Design Requirements:
Size
50 X 70 cm at 150 dpi

File Size
Max of 5 MB JPG or PDF

Format Orientation
Vertical layout


Timeline For This Project:

1/29/13
After researching topics and areas of interest, generate 12 thumbnails for each category or topic–economy, living, mobility, and people.

1/31/13
Continue generating ideas and sketches. Do further research if necessary and expand on areas of interest as a way of narrowing down a focus.

2/5/13
Finalize an idea or concept and begin even further researching this topic or issue. Continue doing more sketches in regards to this concept. Create a more refined sketch and if possible, begin computer work.

2/7/13
Begin computer work and start thinking critically in terms of design rather than concept (this will have been done already by now).

2/12/13
Begin preparing posters for a large critique with the class. Poster must be "print" and critique ready, so that there is actually something meaningful there to look at and critique. Think critically about the overall concept and whether its message is resonating through the design.

2/14/13
Using feedback from the large group critique, make any neccessary changes to the poster(s). Submit the poster to the Posterheroes site by Sunday night.


In order to to start thinking about the issues and these Smart City concepts, I began creating concept maps. My ideas stemmed from these maps with each one being based on an issue or category.

 This idea stemmed from the category of smart city living. In my opinion, water waste is a major issue no matter where you live and overpopulated cities in particular must be very conscious about their water use and consumption.

To show the impact of wasteful water use, I drew a water faucet connected to a dried up body of water with dying or dead fish inside. The text reads, "Until the Last Drop" indicating that we will use up our resources if we are not careful about our water consumption.

The next sketch about water consumption is a shower head with water hearts falling from it with the text reading, "Save water; shower together."

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 The next concept I decided to tackle was the idea of Carbon Neutral.Countries such as Denmark have decided to eliminate CO2 emissions entirely in oder to help protect the ozone layer as well as our planet. For both of these sketches, I did a play off of the equality sign as well as molecular make up of carbon.

 

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The next concept I decided to focus on was mobility. My interest was definitely about biking or choosing public transport over driving. I played with the idea of wheels and peddling in regards to advancement. I also looked into public transportation and its benefits (including making a friend ;) ). After doing some research, I found out that in Amsterdam, people share cars through this company called WeShare as a means of transportation. In a sense, it is very similar to our idea of carpooling. So I decided to tackle this idea with the slogan Sharing is Caring with a Volkswagon love bug depicted on the poster.

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Next, I focused on energy and energy consumption, especially in regards to wind power. I had the idea of a flower-like windmill growing from the top of a building and its roots exposed onto the building, indicating that wind power should be the root of the city so to speak. A lot of energy is needed to power a city, so clean energy is the best solution.