One step closer

November 11th, 2010, 8:27 pm

Okay! We have a printer! The great Copy Shack has agreed to assist us. It’ll be printed on a type of plastic so its weather proof, instead of simply laminating it. The text on the sign has been edited and its ready to go off to the printers. This means the sign will be up by Tuseday night!

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Its starting to become a reality

November 2nd, 2010, 9:39 pm

The sign is up!!

Thanks to the help of the Fundraising Team, the sign is built, and the posts are concreted into the ground outside the EcoHouse. Thursday they put up the backing and the frame, so all we need to do is place the sign in and we will be set.

Tuesday the design of the sign was critiqued and finalized. We are just waiting on the edit of the text and we are ready to print. This time next week the sign will be there for all to read! We are all very excited. It’s so close to being finished.

Its just down to the final details now.

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Almost there

October 20th, 2010, 12:13 am

In last week’s class, our team had accomplished two major objectives. These two objectives include Sign design, and working on our midterm presentation.

For the Sign design part, at first we decided the size of our sign, which is 7 ft by 2.5 ft. After deciding the size of our sign, we managed to add pictures and information on the Sign. Both pictures and information which are related to our topic. At the moment we are waiting for the program Indesign, that will allow us to work the text as well as the pictures, so the layout is crisp and clean. At this time we have a design, and all we need to do is tweek it and it will be complete..

At last, our second objective, that is working on our midterm presentation.
Now our main problem we need to work on is creating a tighter schedule and more structure within our group so our team members and the work we have is more efficient.

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Collaboration

October 5th, 2010, 10:35 pm

The last couple of days have been a bit of a Yoyo, but I think we are finally on the right track. Here, let me explain.

Last week, on Thursday, September 30^th, we presented the class with type of signs and where to place the sign on the lot. Also we showed two new layout suggestions. (below)

(not the real colours ^ but just the design aspect. Green = photos, Pink = Text)

We were then given an Idea that we could build a greenhouse cold box, and use one of the panels for the sign. This way, it is both useful, informative, and working art.

So, on Tuesday, October 5^th, we gathered with the Eco House team and collaborated on a design.

The box would 2 feet tall, 6 feet long and 3 feet wide.

There would be two long boxes, and then a artistically design in the middle, this way people would be intrigued and more willing to walk along the lot. It was exciting seeing the idea start to come to life.

The Ecohouse Team and Sign team Collaborating – the video. Click to See!

We used painters tape, and drew the shape on the floor and wall, so we could have a visual aid. It was easier this way, to understand what it could look like, and how we could build it.

It would be made from mostly plexiglass or just glass, with a wooden frame. It would slope down from the top, and have three panels where the middle panel would have the information. Above was trying to figure out how high the base should be.

So, with the designs sketched out, and the tape laying out on the ground, the next step was to present this to Noel.

However, we were hit with reality. Costs, how its going to be built, who’s going to build it, etc.

Now we’re back at where we were. We’re gathering our research, and writing out what will be on the sign.

We will talk about the Past, the Present and the Future of the lot, using pictures, illustrations and possibly a story format to explain the story of the Wildflower Garden.

By Thursday the writing will be done, so we can edit it and discuss what needs to be added or changed.

Some good news, on the other hand, is a few of our members also went out and measured the lot, and drew an amazing map with the dimensions. With this map, not only can our team decide where the sign can be located, but for other groups as well when they can’t be at the lot. It’s going to be a very useful aid for the future.

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Decisions, Decisions.

September 28th, 2010, 9:59 pm

From one task bloomed several designs and ideas. This week we are deciding the size, height… where should the sign go? Should it be angled? Should it be long and short, or big like a billboard? Should the sign have a lot of pictures or more information? What pictures should we have? The ideas are endless, but we have to shorten them down to one. It’s harder than it sounds.

As for the design, Christina and Sarah are collaborating together, polishing their ideas to be able to make just one sign. Meanwhile, we have Vic and Sarah figuring out the wording, what kind of information should be on the sign and how it should be presented. We want the words to be eye catching but informative.

Then we have Yiyao, Mengjia and Akiyo researching. We want to be able to inform everyone about the purpose of the Ecohouse and Green Corridor. Did you know not only is this a class, but it’s also a non-profit organization?

Next step is to put all the information together and form simple paragraphs and then put everything together as one sign.

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Planning, Brainstorming, & Sketching

September 28th, 2010, 8:35 pm

On Tuesday, September 21th, our group, the sign team,  we got together to design a sign for the Ecohouse and the lot beside it, and created several mock designs.

Additionally, the sketches were designed by each group member in order to create an outline or a basis of where should we start (such as the one above).

Then, on Thursday, September 23th, Christina Shen and Sarah Robbins created three designs each in Photoshop as a basic layout to start with.

We combined the ideas into a slideshow and presented it to the class, to gain some insight and opinions. Students suggested the location of the sign and the possible words and layout ideas we could . Everyone also suggested ideas how to combine all the ideas into one sign.

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Long Live Legacy

June 19th, 2010, 6:55 pm

Six weeks seems so long, but not when the time is short. From assisting a local community garden, to exploring urban gardens, vertical farming, container gardens, and finally signage, the Urban Agriculture group took quite the ride to the end of the six week long Green Corridor course. Our project ideas were ever changing and growing. This week concluded the chaos, with a presentation of our final piece; the signage. The journey of the signage was not easy either. From traditional poster-style-bulletin-boards, to banners, to stencil and lights, the signage evolved to the cedar post bird houses unit that it is now. Through it, we hope to achieve an artistic and aesthetic appeal, as well as to draw our audience to the ‘urban arts community’ – our temporary name for the site located between the ecohouses on California Ave.

The signage was originally modelled with 5 posts of differing heights to represent a hand, on top of which text and items were to be placed. From here the birdhouses concept was borrowed towards the new and final signage. The choice of using no text, but rather birdhouses was to turn heads twice, and have a symbolic meaning. Through the clustering of the birdhouses on the post, we hoped to achieve our initial goal of representing community. The presence of local birds, we hoped would make the piece interesting, eye-catching, and representative of how we felt of the land, Green Corridor, and its surrounding environment.

At the conclusion of our six weeks with Green Corridor, the Urban Agriculture group shared their experiences of frustration, satisfaction, and accomplishment. We built our project on the basis that it would be functional, with or without our presence. We hope for future students of Green Corridor to build upon (and improve) what we have initiated, allowing for this project to be an inspiration to the community for years to come.

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Jumping Out Of The Box!

June 12th, 2010, 3:19 pm

Being Creative...

This Tuesday, our group went through the toughest night of the semester. Unfortunately, our designs for the signage were turned down again. It was suggested to find or create our own image for the sign instead of using the ones we had found. At that moment, we were very nervous and anxious for the success of our project. We felt it would not be completed by the end of the semester, since we spent over half of the semester just on the initial stage for the sign. Although hundreds of suggestions had been given by our instructors and we explored many venues, we were lost in our direction. Time does not wait. Only three classes were left to the end of the semester, and the pressures to finalize a design and erect the sign within a week were high! We took the professor’s advice, and immediately went to the Wildflower site in order to refresh our minds. Here we thought up some crazy and creative designs for the sign. Being on site, we were able to think outside of the box, literally, and new ideas just kept coming to us. The process felt very different, as though we were using a part of our brain that had been forgotten since we were 5 years old. With just under an hour, we got fifteen designs! No pain, no gain. Finally, one of our designs evoked some interest, from our professors, for which it was suggested that models be made. This would allow us to analyze our designs and give us multiple angles from which to view the sign. If approved, the next step would be to make the models into reality.

Some ideas

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Turn the Tables, or the Signs!

June 6th, 2010, 1:02 am

This week the Urban Agriculture group started to contact organizations within the city about the maintenance of the garden during the summer time. On Thursday, two of our members met with the director of the Youth Connection Association. Kenny Gbadebo said he was really interested in our project and willing to help us, but the only thing was the students would not be there during the summer time and would come back in September. He is hoping to hold a summer camp in August, but gave us his contact information and encouraged us to keep in touch. Therefore, this organization could be one of our options to help the maintenance of the garden.

On the other hand, the design of the sign for the garden was still on the way. On Tuesday, after a small meeting with Rod, we decided on the title name for the sign which was “Visual Arts Community”. We wrote the brief introduction of the uses for the land between the two eco-houses, which would be posted on the sign. During Thursday’s class, we discussed our write-up and new designs with the professors. A new suggestion was made for the sign, involving the idea of making a large sign without any wording on it. The sign would act as an eye-catcher, to attract individuals to the garden. Another suggestion made was to add a rain barrel to the sign, or site. The rain barrel needed to be aesthetically appealing and also have high technical skills; therefore it could water the flowers automatically and also be sensitive to the amount of water needed by the flowers. This led us to change our direction completely from the original sign project. Consultations were made with the Wildflower Group to keep their plans for the design of the land in mind, while also fulfilling our requirements of the location and size of the sign. The tasks for the completion of the new sign were separated among group members and work was to be started immediately during the weekend. In the end, we planned to have a finalized sign for next week so that preparations for construction and assembly could be underway.

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Canadian Tire Eh!

June 2nd, 2010, 7:22 pm

Today we purchased items to assist the Wildflower garden group to begin cultivating the land. Staying within the Green Corridor we went to the Canadian Tire on Huron Church. We purchased 2 large shovels a large pack of gloves and a nozzle to attach to the hose. The products were not difficult to find but we were faced with a difficult decision on whether to sacrifice price over quality. In the end we went with quality. An update on another part of our project is establishing a volunteer base to maintain the garden after we have gone. Manjot contacted “A Place of our own”. They gave us some promising news that the possibility of them assisting with volunteers is high. We also called a number of other community organizations where we left detailed voicemail messages explaining who we are and what we are aiming to do. The signs for both the eco house and wildflower garden are well on their way. All they require is approval from Rod and Justin and a little editing in Photoshop. After class with tools in hand we headed down to the Ecohouse to assist the wildflower group in cultivating the land. There were number of areas on the land that have ingrown weeds. We assisted them in removing the weeds. Today was a far cry from the complete project but a productive day overall.

Working hard or hardly working?

We're not scared of getting dirty!

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