Saturday, December 7, 2013

Field Journal #9 - Parking Garages

Living in the South Bay, I've never really had to deal much with Parking Garages. There's always plenty of parking spots in the "parking lot", or spots along the curb. However, whenever I visit larger cities, such as San Francisco, street parking, or lot parking, seems to be less of an option, and large parking garages eventually end up being the only choice for parking.
Parking garages are not friendly places, especially when spots are at a premium. I find that many people often ignore traffic signs, or directionality just to get to an open spot. And with the Holiday Shopping Season right around the corner, I dread the idea of entering a public parking garage.
That is, until I noticed some really cool graphics that started to pop up in larger garages. I thought it was a stroke of genius. Large lettering, painted on the walls and concrete in a style where if seen up close, it would make no sense at all. However, from a distance, such as that of a driver in a car, the painting clearly spells out directionality. There's no excuse of "I didn't see the sign" or "I wasn't sure which way was up or down" anymore. "Super graphics" like these are popping up all over. 
At first, large graphics painted or hung on walls were reserved for advertising: underwear, athletes, brands, etc... They would stretch several stories tall, and span the entire face of a building. There's absolutely no way a consumer could miss that large of an advertisement.

Taking something that was once meant as a form of art or advertising, and transforming it into a tool for public safety shows that art and design can be extremely flexible, and its uses are only limited by the imagination of its creator. 

No comments:

Post a Comment