The basic idea for this project has been to devise a method of making the Wrexham public aware of their own local environment, their impact on it but also the environmental services which the council offers. One key requirement is to distribute the Wrexham council environmental department phone number to the public, making them aware of the related services which they offer. Although still at the raw idea stage this has been a real insight in to the creative limitations of working with a public body and the need to communicate with the general public in an easily understandable fashion. The health and safety implications of any piece shown in a public space have been limiting but caused the group to think in different directions and may in some ways lead to more creative solutions. What I have found inspiring is the willingness of the students to co-operate and contribute to something which, we hope, has wide reaching positive results for the public. Sitting in the local pub discussing the project with the council representatives provided a free and positive atmosphere, where I think most people contributed and ideas were openly discussed, discarded. For me personally, it has been a good exercise so far as to how to let go and share ideas and not be overly protective in order to refine ideas as part of a team to solve a greater problem.
The first day of the new week brought more focus in on what the finished ideas might be like. We sat down in a group and discussed our individual ideas on the Victorian sea-side style board concept which the council seemed so keen on. We looked at the councils list of environmental services they offer in the area. These included things such as cleaning up fly tipping, dead animals, dog fouling, cleaning graffitti, disposing of needles and sharp objects for example. Although, today we didn’t have to pitch again to the council on our refined ideas, we did for ourselves have to be aware of the creative limitations of the project and health and safety issues such as the weight of the large wooden boards we’ll be using could easily be caught in the wind and could cause problems should they fall over. Also when desigining some of the characters for the boards we had to consider how different representations of people and their actions involved a conflict of interests between the people which we wanted to bring in to view the work and make them want to photograph it and the interests of the council, who understandably had their credibility and reputation to consider. With the help of the group as a whole, this was slowly refined as different view points were expressed. I think, idedally it would have been wiser to have the council present when we were discussing these points rather than having to second guess it or have it outlined before hand. Perhaps though, that is a luxury which wouldn’t happen in reality.
We all worked seperately on our versions of various council services. We then collected the examples altogether and as a group looked through each rough design to find three images which struck a balance between being entertaining to look at and communicated the need for that particular council service. Once we’d established that, we started work on conpositions for each of the boards to try and figure out where to place the head holes for the public to put their heads through but also retain some visual impact. We then took the small scale mock-up and held it up against the full-size boards and marked out the head hole positions so they could be cut out. At the same time, we began to discuss the style of the imagery we would use. Sam had designed a really nice three quater view type style for the phone number which we all agreed would suite the actual board illustrations as the line quality and feel was so good. Daryl had suggested that limiting the pallet to maybe three or four may also be a good idea and give a nice visual language and make the physical act of painting simpler given the time restrictions.
The production of the boards presented, on the face of it many problems in practice. Once we’d sat down and discussed what images would be used on each of the boards we refined sketches and compositions and then photographed them and used a projector to beam the images straight on to the primed boards. We then traced off the lines with a pencil and made small changes to details as we went. Because several people were worling on the boards and each had their own visual style and painting techniques, the boards began to look different from one another. Given enough time an agreed style and painting technique would have been the best option. Having said that, the boards slowly began to look more and more alike as time passed and as each person working on them moved around to work on the other boards.
One problem we did come across was a misunderstanding of the details of the initial drawings we made on the boards. Because they were such fine lines and to begin with we didn’t communicate openly enough, details were wrongly painted in and a few visual errors appeared. There is a positive outcome to this though in that it added genuine character to the boards and life, which they may had missed if they’d been more measured.
As the painting progressed though it was great to see how we all pulled together and opened up as individuals. The pressure of the real deadline I think made everyone knuckle down and work toward a common goal and it created a positive and active atmosphere rather then a stressful negative environment as you might expect.
Ideally the people working on the project would have communicated more openly from the start and some more defined incremental objectives would have helped the project move forward quicker. It was only when the closing deadline started to sink in and we could see that we were making progress and working together towards something, that we started to pull together and work harder. Despite the problems we experienced with the council timetable and delayed delivery of materials, we did really well to pull the whole thing off. The event which took place in the town square was meant to be a fun event and was designed to distribute the phone number via the public photographing the boards. The fact that we’d had a lot of fun producing the boards I think reflecting in the personality of the boards and therefore the event and this had a positive impact on the point of the whole excercise.
that last photo
priceless!