London Transport Museum - My Bliss

Today I went to the London Transport Museum and was widely impressed. I was overwhelmed, but impressed nonetheless. The biggest shock of my visit was when approaching the museum, there was an actual line to get in. The museum was quite crowded, extremely actually. There were many children and strollers - kids running around. At a few points, it was even difficult to navigate through exhibits from the overcrowding.

Though it was slightly aggravating, I did enjoy seeing the large interest in public transport. At first, I was confused about the overcrowding. It's not often you hear good words about public transport, so why would people take time out of their busy days to pay to visit a museum revolved around it? It was then I remembered: Oh yeah, little boys like trains. I had forgotten about the playfulness of trains and vehicles.


The first exhibit at the museum was the least crowded, people breezed through the World Cities Walk to get to the next exhibit: the old buses and trains. Victorian era displays. 

 

 

I still found the World Cities Walk to be quite interesting, it displayed maps and videos of people on public transport from all over the world.

Though I was interested in seeing actual old carriages, my main interest was that of original posters and artwork for the Tube and trains. There were many cases with pull out drawers to view original documents: posters, tickets, flyers, postcards, etc. To me this was the most fascinating part of the exhibit. Yes, it was enjoyable climbing in and out of old trains and buses - but I found my joy in the poster artwork.

Poster design by Theyre Lee-Elliott

By far, the busiest portions of the museum are the trains and buses. Parents and children alike are smiling and enjoying their interaction with such historical objects.

What I've taken away from this exhibit is the need for my degree show to be interactive, educational slightly, but interactive at most. Here people have found joy in the 'old' and 'historical' aspect of public transport. Similar to my work, the London Transport Museum has created a marriage between the old and the new. Historical and Modern. Encouraging and Educational.

Happiness is a Warm Cushion

 It's rare to come across random acts of kindness. My classmate sent me this link:
 http://imprint.printmag.com/daily-heller/happiness-is-a-warm-cushion/

I am quite impressed and amazed by the minds of graphic design students Lizzy Showman and Kathleen Fitzgerald. They created bus seat cushions for NYC bus drivers on the M15 line. Every bus driver.

As commuters, we rarely think of the patience required of bus drivers. People aren't too cheery on their commute, we're grumpy, we're tired - we're thinking about how warm our bed was just 30 minutes ago. But one person has to deal with the our bitterness, one person absorbs the weight of everyone's frustration and continues to do their job - the driver.

Smiles are contagious, happiness spreads. As designers, we have the power to spread joy through these simple little movements.

The Death of the Red Car System

It is of little known fact that the movie 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' holds a bit of truth to Los Angeles history. No, not about the fall of cartoons but rather the fall of the Red Car system (the cable car) and the rise of freeways and dependence on cars.

Nowadays when you picture Los Angeles transport, you think smog, traffic, millions of cars, and really all in all just grumpy miserable people commuting to work. But in the 1920s, the Red Car system in LA was the largest electric railway system in the world. Into the 1930s, there was such a large influence from the automotive companies, that large 'motor-ways' were built. What we know now as freeways. When traffic congestion increased, the solution at the time was to build even more freeways, with more lanes. Sadly, the cable car started seeing its death.

Throughout the year, there were many attempts to expand mass public transit but none of these ideas truly stuck around. It wasn't until the 1990s, that plans were made for LA to delve into the world of Subways. Currently there are only 4 underground lines, quite a sad number in comparison to the size/population of LA but it is slowly...very slowly becoming more popular.

Today it is best to compare Los Angelinos love of their cars to that of Americans and their attachments to their guns. 'You can't take my gun away!'

'You can't take my car away!'

I took a break from coming up with designs to make bus commuters happy, and decided to head back to the origin of my reasons for my subject. When stumped, head back to the beginning right? I've been trying to push myself out of my element so much, that I'm now in that uncomfortable phase. That uncomfortable era of 'What is my aesthetic? Where has my personal design style gone?' (I just quivered using the word style. Sagmeister has scarred me forever! In a good way of course). When diving into my typography explorations, I have picked up a vintage aesthetic. I was challenged to get away from this aesthetic, being that it is quite popular at the moment. Of course, I don't want to be a follower as a designer, I want to be a leader - how nice it would be to be ground breaking.

But when you look at my previous work, it definitely has a vintage effect to it.
www.behance.net/jocelynk/frame

What I have created thus far in this new exploration is combine these random vintage/original images with new type. I know this isn't quite ground breaking in the design world in general, but it is ground breaking personally for my own work. I'm going back to the beginning, the origin of my studies and I'm combining it with the modern world.

My works in progress: "Smile. You have public transportation."

Smile that you have public transportation. Smile that you don't have to sit in traffic everyday, that government and large automobile industries haven't forced you to purchase a car. Corporations haven't forced you to sit alone in your vehicle, making no connection to others. Rather companies are giving you the freedom to sit and interact with others. Relax, let the driver take control. You'll get to your destination.

No guts, no glory

My challenge is to go beyond the media I'm used to creating. I know how to create printed material, I know how to communicate messages through any printed media.

But take away my printer, my laptop and I'm lost, it's like throwing someone into the deep end of a swimming pool - with weights around their ankles. Good luck!

To go beyond the printed world, the printed companion. How do you reach others? There's performance, there's drama. If I want to influence the minds of the average commuter, I have to branch out beyond the passive printed format. Does this scare me? Of course it does, I am no performer. I would much rather reach the minds of the average commuter by hiding behind my work, but really - no guts, no glory.

To change topics: Now let's focus on what has been my inspiration as of lately. I swooned over the typography found in Lacoste Legends, it's newspaper and it's beautiful. Stunning type. It's artistic yet draws your eye in, makes you want to look closer.

 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Lacoste-Legends/1432521

To make the ordinary 'less ordinary,' I asked for some inspiration from my sister who happens to be a photography teacher, and therefore has a bit more insight into similar photographers. Her recommendations: Garry Winogrand, Stephen Shore (Uncommon Places) and Robert Frank
(The Americans.

Garry Winogrand did a series called Women are Beautiful. These are simple images capturing the average woman in the street, I feel they are stunning to the eye. These women aren't posing, they're captured in their everyday life and I smile because of it. They are beautiful:

Stephen Shore:

Robert Frank, The Americans: Of course I would swoon for these. It captures the essence of that time, that era. I swoon for the simple everyday beauty, now how do I get others to do the same? How do I do like them, capture the beauty and express the beauty?