CITY/NATURE Relations between human and nature in the cities
CITY/NATURE – an exploration of human-nature relations in the cities.
The project included a collaboration with a group of local, green activists "OSŻ” and responds to their needs.
The main part was the International Poster Contest with the aim to promote having closer relations with nature and to search for the best visual language on that topic. It received over 1,000 submissions from over 50 countries and ended up with the post-contest exhibition presenting works for the public view.
Cross-border/international
Poland
Other
The project was participated by people from 51 countries around the world.
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Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Following one of the First Things First 2020 Manifesto rules for graphic designers: ‘We must support community-based efforts to advance and promote justice, healing, co-existence, and mutual respect” I have decided to start by focusing on my surrounding. Living in a big city I have noticed how far we are from nature.
The first part of the project was establishing a collaboration with the group of local, green activists „Owocowe Sady Żoliborskie”. It is a group of people focus on one of the parks in Warsaw, caring for nature and organising social actions like fruit picking and building shelters for hedgehogs. Based on conversations and research of their needs I have created for them a graphic identification – a visual identity to help them attract attention to their causes.
The group's activity was an inspiration for the project's further development. To explore and promote the topic of human–nature relations in the cities and its visual language I have conducted the CITY/NATURE international Poster Contest. The competition took place in spring 2022 and has received 1026 submissions from 51 countries worldwide. The contest served as an educational project promoting ecology, cooperation and partnership with nature. The sent works were used as material for the research on the visual language of eco-activism and the power of poster art. The website of the competition and the results are available here: https://citynature.pja.edu.pl
The important part was the real-life presence in a public space. The awarded posters were presented for public view at the post-competition exhibition held in Warsaw. The exhibition design involves an eco-friendly approach and minimalization of the carbon footprint and used resources. CITY/NATURE project ended up with a publication which includes interviews with specialists like Steven Heller and Olag Veklenko.
Further showing of works is planned for 2023.
human-nature relations
sustainable city growth
ecology
visual language
graphic design
The increase of social awareness in the field of sustainable urban development and the role of nature in the city, with minimizing the use of natural resources needed to create the project were the main objectives of the project. Cities play a significant role in sustainable development because most of the earth's population lives in urban areas. According to the United Nations, the urban population will increase to around 68% of the world's population by 2050, compared to about 56% nowadays. More than 1,000 participants in the competition created works that focused on various aspects of the symbiosis of nature in the urbanized urban environment, creating posters about biodiversity and the broadly understood relationship between humans and nature. Using posters as a visual communication and information design tool in the competition whose key objectives were to start a social dialogue and show the massive problem of the impact of human activity on the natural environment. At the same time, participants focus on a possible solution to the problem by creating in recipients the need for closer contact with nature in the city. The introduction of green infrastructure in places of dense urban development is one of the most effective ways to mitigate climate change in built-up areas while having a positive impact on the microclimate and decreasing pollution levels (for eg. air, soil, water or noise) with biodiversity protection and growth in urbanized areas. The concept was exemplary with usage design as a communication tool and to unite a massive number of people for whom climate change and the marginalization of nature in the city are a problem. In the project, a visual language was used to integrate both participants and recipients of the poster from around the world, which would be impossible using traditional communication methods. All to promote the extremely important idea of sustainable development of urban areas.
The project was based on the power of visual art and explore the topic of the most successful way of using it. The main goal of the entire project was to maintain a coherent visual language of all works. An extreme challenge was caused by over 1,000 substitutions from all over the world joining the competition. To achieve the consistent aestetics of works, the participants could use only three strictly defined colors. It allowes to keep the character of the works coherent and to spark creativity by limiting the choices. Despite obvious stylistic differences, goals have been met, and the final exhibition of works was visually consistent, maintaining harmony and ensuring positive feelings of recipients. The exhibition itself, which took place in the second half of September 2022, has become a frequently visited place in Warsaw, Poland and was promoting the assumptions of the project such as sustainable development and the positive impact of nature into the entire ecosystem, of which humans are also a part. The exemplary of the project consists of strict visual limitations in the simple visual form of the poster while using the broad issue of the relationship between man and nature in the city. It increased the coherence and visual harmony of the works and became a powerful tool to start a social dialogue in sustainable urban development.
The project was open to any graphic designer, this included students, professionals and anybody identify as one. Participation was free of charge.
The design of the project assumed equality in access and participation for everyone, no matter where they are. I had to take into consideration also difficulties in traveling caused by the COVID pandemic. Therefore, every step of the project was available online. The contest results as well as post-contest publication are available for everyone on the contest website https://citynature.pja.edu.pl/.
The surpassing outcome of the project for me was the interest it gained and the number of submitted works. The contest was a non-budget affair and therefore I could not offer any prize for the winners. More than a thousand designers devoted their time and effort without any regard for profit. I consider it a big success.
The submissions were made from around the world. The most common country was Poland (226). The second country of sent was China (167) and Taiwan (157). The third most common country was Turkey (72) and later the United States of America (25). To reach the audience I have used various channels of communication such as social media, mailing but also I manage to contact the established designers – educators around the globe which pass the informations to their students and audience. Together, contestants were from 51 countries. Therefore we can see a review of works from around the world, from different cultures and situations. That gave an interesting value to the project wich became an transnational cooperation without any boudraries or restrictions. I believe that the thing which brought together all of this people was the topic of human-nature relations which is relevant and universal across the globe.
The main assumptions of the project included increasing public awareness of sustainable development and the role of nature in the urban environment. To meet these goals, cooperation with the local activist organization "Owocowe Sady Żoliborskie" was started. The organization has been supported in promoting green goals by creating a visual identity. The group benefit form having visually attractive graphic identification which helps them attract people and attention to their cause. That can result in benefits for the nature in the park and its biodiversity.
The next element was the announcement of the competition, to which over 1000 substitutions were submitted. The project's internet web service also took a socially responsible role by containing information on the positive aspects of greenery in urbanized areas. Furthermore, the organisation of the contest established a social dialogue about the problem and benefits of greenery in cities as well as about pros and cons of poster art as a way of creating the change.
The final element was an open exhibition in the center of Warsaw, Poland. The open and free exhibition was visited frequently for 2 weeks, highlighting the problem raised in the project. To reach the wider audience, not only from big cities, the further exhibition is planned in local library in town Kobyłka. To sum up, the work at every stage was aimed at social benefits and promoting the attitudes of civil society, encouraging the society to start dialogue and gain knowledge in the field of sustainable development to show the benefits that these assumptions can bring to their area.
The project was made as a master's diploma project at the Polish-Japanses Academy of Information Technology. The institution was engaged during the process in various ways. It supported me with promotion and with the organisation of the exhibition. My university was not the only one involved. I have reached many art and design institutions worldwide to help me promote the project. CITY/NATURE became the inspiration and educational project for many students.
At the begging of the project, I established a cooperation with a local group of activists. “Owocowe Sady Żoliborskie”. They are the neighbours of the park who are fighting for preserving the place and for keeping its unique character. What especially caught my attention was the caring and private relation with nature they have. Following the First Thongs First 2020 Manifesto rules for graphic designers ‘We must support community-based efforts to advance and promote justice, healing, co-existence, and mutual respect” I have decided to cooperate with the group. In the fall of 2021, I had several meetings with the organization. We have decided that the group needs better visual communication – the logo and the full branding. While working on identification I wanted to stress the close connection of organizations with nature and the seasonality of their actions. I decided to make not one but four logos. Each one is for every season. They are meant to be used according to the time of the year and promoted action.
CITY/NATURE project ended up with a printed publication which includes interviews with Steven Heller – a famous American graphic design critic and Olag Veklenko – a Ukrainian graphic designer and educator, founder of the ecological poster triennial ‘The 4th Block’. That was an important part of the educational purposes of the project. Authors express their opinions and thoughts about the visual language of eco-activism, the art of posters and its ability to change the world.
The designing and developing process of the project assumed the use of graphic design as the most important discipline not only as a communication tool to encourage society to enter into a dialogue on sustainable development of urban areas, and ecology but also for better participation of citizens in urban development with green infrastructure. In a natural way, the project evolved into a broader work in the field of urban planning, social participation, and environmental issues, including environmental engineering and biodiversity protection. Extended research about urban planning and environmental planning allowed for the creation of a project statement, which was published on the project web service.
During the process of creating the project the specialist were involved and interviewed to gain a better knowledge and understanding on the field of design and poster art:
– Steven Heller, an American author, graphic design critic and reaserher
– Oleg Veklenko, Ukrainin graphic designer, educator, activist. The founder of Eco-Poster Treinnale, ,,the 4th Block”.
On the other hand, eight members of the Jury from five different countries directly related to the world of Design, knowing the assumptions of the project, assessed the works in terms of the project's goals and visual language, contributing to the creation of the exhibition, which had an impact on the key objectives of the project.
The innovative character of the project compared to mainstream project assumes acting based on multidisciplinary criteria, combining design with other fields, including spatial planning, sociology, and a pro-environmental approach to spatial changes. The project also involved cooperation with a local ecological association, which acts to preserve the local identity of the surrounding park. The project encouraged many experts to collaborate on an extremely important issue to point out the strong problem of spatial changes and human-nature relations. An additional advantage of the project is the creation of an information website that summarizes the benefits of the symbiosis of man and nature in the urban environment. Then, the creation of an open and free exhibition, which is also available online, allowed for wider public access to the content and wider promotion of the project idea.
Elements concerning the increase of ecological awareness in civic attitudes may be kept for future use. In particular, the use of the poster design as a form of communication between the creators and the audience. The groups of beneficiaries and recipients in civic communities should be, as in this case, residents of the community, because by acting locally we can reach wider social circles. The project assumed both local communication and on a wider scale: urban and global, using the contest works exhibition, which took place in a stationary form in Warsaw, as well as online. An open online exhibition of works useful to the public is an extremely important tool that should be reproduced in the future. Another important element is the minimization of natural resources, which was achieved in the process of creating the exhibition. The majority entries were printed on paper that was obtained from a primary school, which was already printed on one side to print smaller posters for exhibition proposals.
The project tries to respond to the challenges that we are experiencing due to climate change which nowadays is considered to be the greatest environmental threat. During the last decades, the human population is observing an increase in global temperatures and levels of air pollution, especially in urban areas. All those factors are putting at risk the health and well-being of the population all around the world. While climate changes in urban areas affect a majority of the population, both the scale of the changes and the number of people who face the negative impact of climate change are the strongest in cities. Population growth and climate change intensify the negative phenomena observed in urban climates. The project responds to these challenges by promoting the idea of sustainable development and urban greenery as an element of counteracting the negative effects of climate change and mitigating the urban climate. Moreover, the use of design as a social communication tool while increasing awareness of the urban climate and the role of greenery in the city allows for the creation of civic attitudes among the recipients of the project. In this case, global challenges are properly communicated, and the project has been focused on a local eco-activist initiative from the beginning. Then, after successful cooperation, a City-Nature contest was announced, which on a global scale was to encourage participants to engage in dialogue and create visual communication in the form of a poster to promote the idea of sustainable development. Organizing an exhibition in Warsaw, as well as launching an informative website with an online exhibition and pieces of information about the problems that occur in the urban climate project started a dialogue about the huge global challenges we are facing today.
