Hero Poem

I really love the Hero poem by 11 year old James. I have been considering using it for a playground area as he is young. The idea of a Hero is aspirational and also exciting for young children so I think it would be an appropriate environment. I want to the type to be part of the play area, the railing around the area could say the poem.



I have tried out a few typefaces and written them in wire to show what the railings could look like. The bottom font, 'little days' works best I think. Here is a close up.

Poems?

One of the poems is about sport which is good for encouraging an active lifestyle.
I saw this interesting piece of typography from the design company draftFCB, from lisbon. I like how type has been used in a practical way to create something we use everyday.

In a similar way I have been playing with the idea of type making up the lines of a sports court.

I think this idea needs more work but it is on the right track...

Words?

I want to convey a message of community spirit but have been finding it difficult to decide on what text to use.
I have looked at a few different ideas such as various greetings... This spurted from an idea that when you go for a walk in the country people generally say 'Good Morning' when you walk past another person on a walk, of at least they nod their head. In the city this doesn't happen so I wanted to encourage people to say hello to each other.
However it seems unrealistic, if you said hello to everyone in a city you would never stop talking!
Another idea was to use local stories from local people. On "www.thisisnottingham.co.uk" there is a section where you can send in poems to the site. After looking through them I found 3 poems that had really nice messages behind them. One example is called 'Hero' sent in from 11 year old, James Norton.

A hero is someone brave

He would sail over the highest wave.

A hero is someone who has no fear,

And always turn up with the right gear.

A hero is someone strong,

And he never gets anything wrong.

A hero is someone with a good heart,

Hero qualities are in us all

And he sticks to it from the start.

Hero qualities are in us all,

It doesn't matter how big or small.

All that matters is you go the extra mile,

And you have a great big smile.

JAMES NORTON (aged 11) Clifton

I would like to use this poem and maybe one or two others to make people see their own city in a good light and to make them smile. Smiling can be the start of community spirit.

Inside/Outside

I have been considering some kind of illusion. It would be amazing if I could create a mosaic rug in Market Square which had typography on it but that looked realistic. Luigi Renzi makes beautiful mosaics, here is an example of a mosaic rug he made in a house.



My rug would look much less persian and much more typographic.

Bringing the Inside Outside

I have been considering an idea of bringing the inside outside....When you are sitting in your living room it is a sociable place, people chat and interact with one another. This is compared to your local high-street where no one talks to each other. My idea would bring those inside elements outside (to Market Square for example) to create a place where people felt more comfortable being sociable.

This advert for Homebase shows the inside/outside concept in a very literal way. I need to show it in a typographic way!

Gordon Young has created a lot of work using type to create public spaces. This typography doubles up as lots of benches.

At Morcombe Bay he created a fun public space by engraving into the pavements.

New Project - "True Stories"

Ok so the fresh start and more blogging hasn't worked so far but now I'm ready to start.

I have a new project, "True Stories". It's all about type in the environment.

I want to use this project to encourage community spirit. Back in the day people used to say, 'Good Morning' to each other when they passed in the street, men used to tip their top hats but this doesn't happen any more. If someone says anything to you in the street, a lot of people's reaction is to check their bag.

I want to use type to either create a public space or encourage community spirit...