I am going to try to stay away from conventional briefs that are illustration led as I dont think it would deliver the best results in showing what I can do. Limiting myself to just one area of design would not give off the right impressions to a potential client, but by varying the output of my work would definitely give me an edge against potential competition as well as giving me something challenging to work with.
This in mind, I stumbled upon Design Out Crime on the Design Council's website, the project was started by the Home Office's Design and Technology Alliance Against Crime and of course with the Design Council. It highlights the design industry's role in trying to get to the root of the problem by any means necessary, be it 3D, product, graphic, environmental or digital design.
It hosts a multitude of different crime related design briefs that apply to almost all sectors of crime:
- Alcohol related crime
- Bicycle theft
- Business
- Hot products - designing more secure mobile devices
- Housing and communities - designing safer communities
- Schools - minimise bullying, assaults and petty thefts
- Vehicles - after keys are stolen from house, break ins
I think the best one to go with would be the bicycle theft brief, this was after my friend's bike got stolen for the second time this year. It not only irritated me as it has happened to me numerous times but now I could see it could very well be a good chance to try solve this through my own means.
Much of the design on site as well as some of the source work was predominantly all 3D/product design that focused mainly on utilising various types of security that are all relatively high cost to produce and manufacture.
Four design teams were approached: Rodd; Submarine Design; Frontyard Company and Cyclehoop; to develop their solutions over 4 weeks.
Some of the designs included an Armlock and a Lupin. In their own words -"Lupin is a portable, lightweight, fixing loop that is slid through the gap above the bottom hinge of a door to which a conventional bike lock can be daisy chained to provide a fixed point in any residential environment. Armlock is at the other end if the security spectrum, it is a super convenient, fixed, wall mounted 'lazy lock'. The cyclist simply wheels their bike up, offers up the frame, an auto trigger mechanism secures the bike. When not in use Armlock can be folded back to the wall.”
Admittedly, a great idea, but the cost and installation would/could put people off the purchasing of these products. Then again, saying that most bikes in the market or bought brand new exceed that of £200 it would be a must have for the majority of the road cyclists that demographic tend to fit the upper band of income and financial stability. So what happens to the younger, less financially stable market? Why the 'daisy chaining' method of course. This is simply when you buy 2 relatively cheap bike locks and intertwine them through the bikes frame and wheels then voila.
I think I would be best suited to doing some form of online and poster campaign that highlights different security measures and encourages people not to be fools and lock up their bikes anywhere. Especially my friend Barney, whose bike was no more than 2 days old.
The website not only offered a good starting point in terms of existing solutions, but had a PDF outlining the various factors affecting the different types of crime.
With some infographics that prevented me from having to scour an entire document for facts and figures, I could clearly identify that this was a problem.
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