Context
The brief for Access All Areas was to disturb an unused space with typography. This shows my journey from concept to execution. My chosen location was the Millwall Slipway as from the 20th May 2024, Thames Water had dumped raw sewage in the River Thames for more than 1,900 hours – equivalent to 79 days. This data was collected using the sewage map website by the organisation River Action. River Action found an average of 2,869 E.coli colony forming units (CFU) per 100ml of water in the river, making it completely unsafe. I wanted my chosen type and location to bring attention to the ongoing problem with the River Thames.
The Problem
I had to create a typographic intervention in a public space. The piece had to be related to the area, and I needed to consider how to effectively draw people’s attention towards the piece. I also had to decide the method I was going to use to create my first prototype.
The Solution
After thorough research into the space I knew that my intervention had to be about the river itself to highlight some of the ecological problems surrounding the river. I hosted a word generation session with friends at university to pick and highlight which words were the most significant to our spaces. I chose the words "neglected waters", which I later shortened to "neglected", I designed a sculpture that relied on the river in order to be legible, mirroring the design so that it was only comprehensible when reflected in the water's surface.
What I did
I found news articles surrounding my chosen place, selected and then randomised words from these articles and then chose my desired word. From there I planned, designed and rendered my typographic intervention in Blender. I decided to use the water in my space to help make a point and accentuate my word by having my typographic intervention light up and be backwards. The actual reflection of the water would reveal the true meaning of the intervention.
What I learnt
Access All Areas made me consider how to bring attention to serious topics through design. Effective design in the real world can hold strong relevance to the space around it, and be a part of influencing change. I became more proficient at Blender, learning the importance of correct lighting use by using HDRI's to simulate the lighting of my real world space.
