Odd title, but I do think ‘Designers can also be super heroes’, title of the open talk I will be leading along with architect Penélope Plaza in Caracas, Venezuela on 25th June. As part of the urban Festival ‘Por el Medio de la Calle’ (Through the middle of the Street) programme, we will share the the experience of leading the workshop ‘Futuros Gráficos’ (Future Graphics) and making a case for the potential of design as crime prevention tool, through the creation of innovative communication platforms within urban space.
Over the last 2 years (slowly but surely) the project ‘Conciencia Visual para la Vida Urbana‘ (Visual Concious for Urban Life) has been in development in partnership with architect Penélope Plaza. I’m happy to say after many jumping many hoops and and an uphill journey, the pilot phase is ready for take off! Visual Conscious aims to generate innovative crime prevention campaigns through the intervention of urban public space as a medium for their dissemination.
We have been invited this year by the Foundation Plátano Verde to participate in the urban festival ‘Por el Medio de la Calle’ (Through the middle of the Street) in Caracas, Venezuela and lead the one day workshop ‘Futuros Graficos’ (Future Graphics) as a first pilot activity. The workshop counts with the support of Prodiseño design school, Civil Asociation Paz Activa (Active Peace), +Pop consultancy, and designer Jacinto Salcedo as strategic consultant.
The workshop will be carried out on the 23rd of June with the participation of designers Jaime Cruz from Prodiseño, Carolina Arnal, Jefferson Quintana & Ricardo Benaím from Manifiesta; Álvaro Bustillos from LaMarca, and Gabriela Fontanillas; a sociologist from the team of Paz Activa, social ommunicator Carlos Sánchez from +pop and eight young Venezuelan urban artists (El Calvo, Blue Chicken, Sink, Diep, By Pato, Flix, Seph y ERGO) with the aim to promote multi-disciplinary collaboration to reach a better understanding of the social and crime context in Venezuela.
The workshop participant’s challenge is to produce creative and innovative social messages in order to create effective crime prevention campaigns. Once this is achieved, the eight street artists will then design and transfer the messages into stencils that will be painted ‘live’ during the festival on the 26th June, 2010.
More info: www.conciencia-visual.com
Twitter @futurosgraficos
