Project Description

This was one of my favourite projects ever. It became so because I was left to be as creative as I wanted to be, it involved technical aspects and it was signage.

I drew every part of every piece of these signs. Each sign is representative both of what is living under the ground that makes these technologies work, as well as what is up above that allows these technologies to be both environmentally beneficial, and aesthetically beautiful. I had to keep the yin and yang in focus as I designed a way to explain this on the spot, so I ended up where I did.

I’m a pretty big fan of all of these signs, and the whole Leader for Clean Water campaign, but the crown jewel is the Elm Drive signage. I’ve never had much luck explaining it, but you’ll see a photo and mock-up below. The sign sits above ground at one end of a bioretention garden. This garden is fed on the side from a catch basin that lies along-side the road, feeding in to the gardens as it flows down. The sign has an illustration of what is underground, underneath the bioretention garden, as well as what it looks like up top, but a square is cut out of the sign. This square is cut out in such a way that if you’re standing at arm’s length away from the sign, in the centre of it, you can look through the hole and it’ll line up with what is above ground. Have a look at the image and it’ll make sense.

Project Brief

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This is the Elm Drive sign. The blue block represents where the sign will be cut out. This took a few shots with quite a few frustrated “helpers” and quite a bit of foamcore scraps.

This is the Elm Drive sign in use. Hopefully it’s self-explanatory!