Three systems

Here's some refinement work on the MINE logo. I've adjusted one of the logo marks, it's not a tree anymore! I've also introduced the colors to be a bit more vibrant, rather than muted tones. I think the grey/blue one speaks to the underground nature. It won't get old which I think is good. The orange is really fun, lots of options there and maybe that won't get old either. The green/brown is really positive and full of energy!

Crossing to Rosedale Park

This is what little kids have to face to get from their house, across the road to the park on the other side. It's a beautiful park with a playground, frisbee golf, tennis courts and goal posts, but what good is a park
if you can't get to it?

Naming the garden project

The essence of this project is both eating healthy (growing locally) and being a part of a garden together. The online tools are to help build a greater sense of community offline. Gardening is hard work and there has to be ways we can band together to do it, share the responsibility and the load, so we can all eat better. I can't do it on my own and neither can you, it's too hard to keep up with the growth. Here's some possible names:

Thrive
Eat healthy, grow together

Bloom
Flourish
Feed
Enrich
Growth

Branding 'n' naming the garden project

Some initial research on visual style and design work: these are some pieces I love from handbuiltstudio in LA (lovely designs from them), Aaron Koblin's latest piece 'The Wilderness Downtown', Nicole Gramm and Aristu.com Oh and some name ideas too, at the end.

Urban Roots Presentation

URBANFARM_forblog

We decided to combine a couple of wire-frames, and to get rid of one. We got rid of the calender, because it was uninteresting. We combined the Weight/Ripeness and Disease plant wire-frames into one - a one stop Plant Investigator App. We have decided that the ones who will give feedback are the pros that are members of the site. We also decided that the fantasy garden wire-frame is for people who don't have access to the urban garden, or the time, but are interested in learning. We also went more in depth on what really encompasses the individual and the community. The Webshed App is new too. It's the place where you store all your tools in the garden shed, online as well as off.

Windows and mirrors

The introduction to this book is interesting. The battle between techie web builders and designery web builders has been a long one. I remember back in the nineties making my first website and how grey and sterile the internet was. Immediately my designer mind was trying to turn it into something more beautiful to look at. 

The author here calls the techie guys structuralists, they structured the web page by links using html code. They believe that internet content is more important that the design of that content. Jakob Neilsen is a structuralist. He believes that design on the internet should be invisible, that content is more important. I kind of agree with that. They are like the product designers of old, designing products where the content (the motor on a vacuum cleaner) disappears within the housing of the appliance.

The designers mastered the structuralists language and by using the in-lin-image tag began to manage the appearance of the page. Designer David Siegel says "who cares how great your content is if people aren't attracted to it or don't find it pleasurable to read?" This is making the appliance more beautiful and the appliance will never go away.

Digital artifacts we design nowadays are housed within the appliance of the computer but must be transparent (digital media) and reflective (visible to the user). Digital art is a form of interface design. There is much to think about when it comes to the relationship between digital technology and the user.

Visual Identity

Here are five different visual identities for the community project. Each one incorporates a brandmark (aka: a symbol or logo), a logotype, a pattern or core graphic element, a style for supporting imagery, photographic or illustration and primary and secondary colors.

sample photo by lomosoftware on photobucket.com

sample photo by adrian_carlos on photobucket.com

sample photo by cyhsu33 on photobucket.com 

Road Diets

Rosedale Green Corridor Project is an initiative currently underway by Rosedale Development Association in conjunction with the Unified Government Planning Department. They envision a 3.9 mile stretch down Southwest Boulevard being converted into a vibrant environment, one where businesses and residents can thrive with easy accessibility through a multi-modal transportation plan, including bicycle and pedestrian transportation. The plan also reflects off street trails, preservation of green open spaces and improved lighting to create a safe atmosphere along the corridor. A residential section will also discuss creating healthy homes and healthy lifestyles for residents and their families.

Part of problem down Southwest Boulevard is the high volume of traffic, no bike lane and a sense that it's really all about the cars, not really the pedestrian. As you can see from the pictures below there are two lanes of traffic either side of the middle line, there are no bike lanes and the speed limit is 30mph.

Here's a picture of the road outside Rosedale Park entrance. You can see there aren't even sidewalks for the kids to get from one side of the park to the other!

Road Dieting is something that just by reworking the road markings you can switch four lanes of traffic (two either way) down to one either way, a turn lane in the middle and bike lanes either side. Of course Mission Road would need sidewalks putting in which I'm told might cost in excess of $100,000!

Here's a good example of road dieting from document by Michael Ronkin entitled Road Diets: Designing Streets for Pedestrians and Bicyclists

Some further brainstorming with Chris and Tyler produced an idea for rapid prototyping: how can graphics slow people down?

I'd also like to do some of the following:
1. visit businesses on Southwest Blvd
2. take pictures of the road in different places, including Mission Road by the park
3. find out more about the green corridor
4. is there a federal system that they have for making road markings?
5. look at other places in the US where they have no distinction between the sidewalk and the road (i.e. creating a level playing field for pedestrian and motorist)
6. how are the city planners involved already?

Revised Brand Schematic

It's interesting that the more time goes on and the more experimenting we do, the fact that we have to move things along to the next stage of development, the more the brand seems to solidify. Thinking about all these aspects of the brand like essence, attributes, vision etc and then moving on to logo and type design, it's amazing how things just seem to start becoming clearer. Here's the latest brand schematic, I think it's almost there in terms of language:

Other live-in communities

I'm looking around at what other people are doing by way of live-in christian community and here's some other links:

http://churchofthesojourners.wordpress.com/

http://www.jpusa.org/

http://rebaplacefellowship.org

http://www.theashram.blogspot.com/

Iterations on Community ID

Below are some further logo reworks and a beginning look at some typefaces.

The web is dead?

The following is a brief comment on an article by Wired Magazine:

Once people thought the internet was the be-all end-all but now mobile device apps are on the scene. They don't sit on the web, they utilize it for transport and they're in your pocket. Apps are more about getting, less about searching. Life now is about peer to peer file transfers, email, company VPNs, machine to machine communication like Skype, VOIP phones and things like streaming movies with Netflix. It seems people really do prefer speed over flexibility. It's so much easier to update your Facebook status on your phone that it is to find a laptop.

When the web first started, the playing field was open. It wasn't 'monopolized' because everything was so new and fresh. People could design and implement whatever they wanted but are we now moving from that capitalist state of being to a more communistic state? Why do I say that? It's the big fish that are taking over the monopoly. Out of the milieu of websites and web portals has arisen a few who have grown extremely large—Facebook, Google, Apple—are just a few of the big dogs enticing and servicing a lot of the market. There is an increasing 'oligopoly', a smaller number of producers or sellers controlling much of the information. The rich definitely are getting richer and among these big dogs there are struggles for visibility and control. It's interesting that Google cannot crawl the iPhone apps and that Facebook don't let Google search through its servers. There does seem to be an increasing 'battle for the soul of the digital frontier.' The understanding that the web is the only place for the delivery of digital media is definitely becoming an idea of the past.

I think it's interesting that we see this same progression in all of human history. There is an idea—in this case the internet—that someone has, that idea is realized and as it grows becomes a platform that opens the door for so many smaller entrepreneurs but does that door seem to be closing now because a few people have cornered the market? They understand how these 'closed gardens' work and they've maximized on it. Facebook now has some 400 million registered users and Apple has sold over 10 billion songs!

I think there will always be a use for the internet despite the growing number of apps and the change in how we use the internet. Or maybe it will be a slow death, like you can still buy LPs but they're almost obsolete. You can't yet get rid of the need for larger screens, to be able to trawl large amounts of information and to be able to use sites for informational purposes but will the bigger conglomerates take over to such an extent that it will shut the smaller sites down? Will they in a communistic type way begin to control or govern even more to where what they say will become the national or international standards? Does Marx's idea that communism is inevitable hold water? I think not. Surely one system grows and then dies and gives way to another. Isn't that the way it always goes?

Final posters!

Here they are, in all their glory. The addition of vines behind in place of the busy backgrounds certainly helps and adds an organic feel.

Community Brand Identity

This is starting to shape up. This is not final mind you. There is an image on the right which is from the presentation I gave a couple weeks ago, this image summing up the entire brand. The icon of the tree and the keyword 'community' under it are one of my logo renderings thus far and the schematic, top left, is the vision, mission, brand essence etc. Put all together like this you kind of get more of a sense of something being built. It's quite exciting!

Community model

This now fits a lot better with the Community and Individual posters.

Community/Individual Posters

These are starting to look pretty sweet. Some work is needed on the color, the size of vegetables (toning down that yellow pepper), something needs doing with the textures (maybe adding some dirt), maybe white space will help or maybe adding some dirt and hand drawn roots.

Photo of community gardeners on community poster by Peter Bennett of Ambient Images for Urban Farm Magazine.

Seven logos

Below are seven logos based on keywords taken from the previous post:

Community Presentation

Design Systems - Phase 1

The Problem

The goal of the visual identity is to convey the idea that you can't do Christian spirituality on just a Sunday morning. It's visual voice will be confrontational but also accessible and rooted in ideas of ancient monastic practice. It will reach a younger audience and will embody these attributes; organic, training, refuge, community, counter culture.

Possible names:

House of Refuge
Everyday Church
Church X
Live-in Church
Re-church
Re-group
Mine
Table
Root
Ground Floor
Monastic House
Early Church
Grounded
Atterri (grounded)
Greenhouse
Our (collective)
Fundamentals
Conjunction

Tag line: spiritual and emotional development

Offline problems and online solutions

Activity Solutions

1. Tetris Garden
This feature will take in what the user is planting, and the size/proportion of their plot. It will be able to show the user where to plant the tomato plant in relationship to the ocra plant and so on. It will more specifically show the user the best way to plant the garden geographically.

2. Ripeness Meter
The user will be able to take a photo with their iphone, or upload an image on-line. They will be able to automatically see info overlaid on the image, that will reveal how ripe the produce is. It will also be able to tell them if it is good to eat.

3. Caring Schedule
This will be an on-line schedule that will remind the user daily of when to water their plant, feed their plant, etc. It will provide the user with knowledge on how to successfully grow the plant day by day.

4. Who's available to work?
An online database will keep track of volunteer schedule. Each profile will have a bio and users will be able to see who needs help on specific days. Now you can volunteer wherever and whenever.

5. Rewards
By uploading photographs, the members of the site will receive recognition for their gardening strengths. Rewards will probably consist of being on the initial page of the site for a month. It could be for best looking tomato, or largest eggplant, etc...

6. Location Finder
Our users will be able to locate new and old plots for their produce. They can find plots that are near or far, and plots that specialize in certain produces. This will benefit those that are new to the city, but haven't been able to plant their own produce yet. For example...Hey! we're looking for a new volunteer who would like to plant some cabbage on the east side of the north land plot.

7. Land meter
Each plot, registered on the site, will be rated by our users. They will be able to tell you that the plot is really good tomato's, but they may not have had much luck growing eggplant.

8. Equipment Rental
For Budget purposes we will have an equipment rental feature. Instead of buying a new rake, our user will be able to rent, or even borrow, a rake for a week for another volunteer. This will also help them to socialize with other urban farmers within the area.

9. Live Feed
We will also do live footage of a different urban farm each week. Our users can watch other farms from the comfort of their own home. Or, they can go to that garden when they see others planting/needing help.

10. Design a Garden
Our users will be able to plot their own dream garden. Others can help out, so it would be a cooperative brainstorm online. The community could type in what all they would like to plant in a certain area one day in the future. It will help them plan out new urban farms.

11. What's growing in the garden?

Each plant gets logged in the digital garden. Everyone knows what's growing so people don't plant multiples of things. You can check in, check up and much confusion is avoided with this handy dandy online check list.

12. What seeds are available?

The online database for the phone and the website is your one stop shop for all your seeds, including heirloom. See who's offering what, where and how much. Database includes everything in North America and Canada. The database includes a visual of each plant and seed variety.

13. Seasonal Recipe Database

If you're growing, you're sure to be cooking. This database of nifty recipes is even tied to the What's Growing in the Garden list so it'll notify you when you should be cooking squash soup or pea fritters! There'll be recipes for product you have in the garden and recipes for other vegetables so your phone will tell you what you're going to need to buy that you don't have in the garden.

14. Who's in the garden?

As a user, you'll be able to build your profile, put in your availability and the database will store your information and let you know when you're needed. If you tell it when you've checked in to the garden it will let your team mates know when you're there.

15. Don't know what's gotten to your plant?

Take a photo of what's happening to your vegetables and get instant feedback from your gardening buddies.

16. What abilities do the other gardeners have?

Looking for a team member with some specific abilities? Profiles on the site will be stored in a keyword database making searching for someone much much easier.

17. Look for a particular plant type

This will be also available on the iPhone app. Your guide to what's what in the world of gardening will help you understand what plants when, how long you've got to go until you can pick and when and how much you should be watering.

18. How much room have I got left in my garden?

With your iPhone you can measure the length of the garden width ways and length ways and plan your rows accordingly.

19. Other gardening activities

Of course with every garden there has to be community meals, community work days and days when you have a special teacher in town teaching on up to the minute gardening methods. Check this schedule weekly, daily or get push notifications.

20. Who's at the garden?

When you're there you can check one box and it'll notify your community. A great idea for security purposes and to let your friends know you might like some company!

Urban Roots

These posters explore the differences between a community urban farm and an individual urban gardner.

A Web 2.0 Community

A third draft of our community model turned out like this. It was quite the shift to see community in a web 2.0 type way. It's amazing what a different angle on things will do.

An Urban Farming Community

What We Are
We are a community urban farm managed and maintained by a small radius of households. There is one full time administrator and a handful of gardening teams who rotate on a daily basis. The teams follow an online schedule through a community website and accompanying iPhone app. All of the gardeners receive updates on who's done what in the garden through these applications. The food grown in the garden feeds the families who work there and any overage is sold for profit at the local farmers market.

Activity
The garden is located in the heart of the community on leased land owned by the city. There is easy access by road for cars and small trucks. It is enclosed by a tall wooden fence to keep out wandering animals. The local residents who work the garden plant two times a year, in teams, the take care of the garden on a schedule system, they make their own compost, recycle all their own garden waste and use water collected in large open top containers to conserve resources. Once a month overage produce that is not used by the gardeners and their families is sold at a local farmers market.

Shared Values
We believe in growing our own food for the neighborhood for three reasons:
1. building community spirit: working together forms new friendships and gives greater appreciation of differences and the community around us
2. organic food is healthy: kids study better, people work harder with more energy and mood is brighter when you eat food that hasn’t been chemically treated
3. organic foods cost less: reduce family food budgets and emissions created when transporting foods

How Influence Works
John attends the monthly garden meeting where he spends time giving feedback to his team leader about the work they are doing. He feels the garden is not only a place where he can work out his passion for growing things but that he also has input on how the overall project is going. His team leader is a great listener and implements a lot of the changes he talks about because he trusts John.

A Shared Emotional Connection
The community garden workers all meet on the last Thursday of every month. They enjoy a big community meal together, some training on gardening and time to input and feedback to team leaders. This evening is the heart of the garden project and facilitated through an online website with accompanying iPhone app. Collected membership finance helps to provide the necessary tools and supplies to keep the garden running.

Poster sketchups

The community aspect of urban farming is depicted on the left and the individual on the right.

Brainstorming Urban Farming

Here's a look at a couple hours worth of thoughts on what all is connected with Urban Farming:

Rosedale Proposal

The Problem

Transportation overall seems to be an issue for Rosedale. Getting from point A to point B. Public transport (buses) could be an issue but also on a more localized level is the issue of poor sidewalks. They're broken, there's poor drainage, some areas don't even have them. There is an issue with cross walks fading and some streets don't even have these either. I can't help but think that if areas that didn't have them had them put in, if broken ones were rebuilt and maintained, that the kids of Rosedale could get around more and their parents would feel better about it. 

They might even use them themselves. It will be helpful to look at an ariel image of the community and determine where the buses run, where the schools are and where the good and bad sidewalks are and begin drawing some connectors, to determine where the solutions might be.

Audience

The kids, specifically 7-14 year olds. They are the focal point for research and problem solving. They are the ones we're encouraging through the Healthy Kids Initiative to use the new transportation ideas. 

"My neighborhood would be safer for walking if I could walk to the park on the sidewalk." - Jaret, age 11

Public transport for Rosedale!

If the kids of Rosedale can get around safely they might want to go to the park, go to the shop, or see their friends. Right now the sidewalks are so bad they can't even bike. Is there a way they could get their bikes on the bus? This would also give access to the grocery store.

Right now the 107 7th Street/Parallel goes down Rainbow Ave, loops around 43rd and 47th Street and goes straight back up (see map below). It doesn't look like it goes around the Rosedale neighborhood at all.

Signs for the bus would mean you don't need to be able to read that much, maybe just the times. We could make it fun to travel on a bus, kids would lose weight just moving round. Maybe they could get to the mall as well as the park.

The finance side of things would have to be looked at. The people of Rosedale are not super rich.

West Midlands travel in England is one of the largest public transport services in Europe and everyone uses it. I'm not sure that KCATA really serves the entire metro area of Kansas City really well. It seems there are pockets of greater activity. Maybe Rosedale could be a pilot for the rest of the city's neighborhoods.

The buses would connect different parts of the neighborhood. If people can travel, they can see other parts of the city. People don't want to walk if they have to carry heavy bags of grocerys round. The buses could help with this.

Maybe there could be a supporting poster campaign looking at the benefits of traveling on buses.

And now for some interesting facts about Rosedale:

Kids don't dream. It's a fact.
Most people don't have internet
The reading ability is very low.
50% obesity in kids.
It's just not cheap to be healthy.
Access to healthy foods is minimal.
Out of school activities are few (Latino kids wanna play soccer!)
Pavements are bad for even getting to the grocery store
KU medical center is the biggest neighbor
Walkability is an issue, sidewalks are in bad shape.
There are 10 languages spoken in the Rosedale area!
If people use cell phones, they're going to be the Payas you go type
The zip code is 66103
There are some organized neighborhood groups
Every business gets a rosedalian paper and it's $15 to subscribe for the year
Churches are up for volunteering.