A mind map was created initially to get down some initial ideas, and to explore other options. The initial inspiration for this brief was the junction boxes The Hungry Sandwich Club have previously designed [Figure 1] along a Leeds High Street for the Tour de France in Yorkshire. They have a very friendly, fun appearance which modernises and livens up the high street. The style of these boxes also inspired me, as they use very simple, vector, bold shapes to create the design, which is something that works really effectively in making these boxes into a much more vibrant positive image.
The mind map also explores the colour types for the brief, as in the brief it specifies no dark colours as these heat up the boxes. The imagery could be vector in style, 2D imagery. There should also be no space left unfilled, as this will encourage graffiti. One thing with Figure 1, is that although the design is fun and interesting, there is quite a large amount of green background left unfilled with designs, which could lead to an increased risk of graffiti. This is something that must be avoided in the designs for this brief. The type of imagery was thought about, such as including trees, clouds, roads etc to create a scene, as this is the surroundings the boxes will be in. A different idea was to design the box like a game, such as tetris, or to fill it with loads of different shapes and patterns. Different inks could be used, such as glow in the dark or water sensitive to add another layer to the design, so certain elements only appear in certain conditions, such as at night or when it's raining. Another different option for inks could be to use reflective, almost metallic inks for the top of the box, to help reflect some of the sunshine to prevent it from over heating.
Another idea for the boxes is to create it showing the different layers of the earth, or different worlds of the earth, such as underground, on ground, sky, and space. This was inspired a little by ants nests, who have different tunnels, also by the TV series The 100, which there are several different populations who live separately, such as sky people, underground science people, forest, warrior on ground people, and desert people. The Time Machine by H G Wells also inspired this, as in this book there are the underground people, and the over ground people, who both live separate lives and have evolved to suit their own environments. This could be a really interesting idea to explore, as there is a lot of scope and area to cover in this idea regarding the different worlds. With the underground and sky worlds though, care would have to be taken to ensure not too dark colours are used, as the boxes must not risk overheating.
The atmosphere of the boxes was thought about, as the image the boxes portray is important. The boxes should aim to be happy, positive, upbeat, fun and friendly, to raise the spirits of the people of Headingley. The target audience was also considered, who actually lives in Headingley? Students, regular families, more working class people. All of these types of people must be considered to ensure the design doesn't offend or alienate anybody.
The most important point, any designs that are produced, they must be able to be physically painted or stencilled onto the boxes by hand myself. If my designs win this competition, perhaps discussions could be made to printing the designs on massive stickers or vinyl, in the same way Hungry Sandwich Club have attached their designs to the junction boxes, and applying the designs to the boxes this way, which would allow for more detailed, complex designs.
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| Figure 1. |
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