Studio Brief 1 - Study Task 3

Fire Exit Redesign

Today john gave us a short brief on re-creating the fire exit sign "running man" originally designed by Yukio Ota. So we got into groups and starting sketching ideas for our design.

Before we fully got into the designing process there were a few aspects as a group we had to consider. Firstly we thought about changing the colour of the sign. The original sign was green and to me, I didn’t think it needed to be changed to any other colour. To me green represents safety, calmness and inviting so subconsciously i would see green as a safe place to go and to remain calm.

Other colours wouldn't unnecessary represent the same relation as green. Red would just represent danger and wouldn’t be inviting. We also considered lighter colours, like a soft green or a soft orange, however if you saw a soft colour on the wall it could blend in to much and be overpowered by its surroundings.

These were some of my ideas.

Why some of the group worked on the look and aesthetic of the sign its self, I looked at how it could be use within everyday use. I looked at how light could be shown on and around a door to signal an emergency signal. One idea would be flashing lights going around the door so when the fire alarm goes off the lights would become visible and start to flash, attracting who ever is walking past. Also i was looking at doors its self, illuminating once the fire alarm goes off, so the whole door would glow green. Following on from this i looked how technology could automatically tell people where the fire is coming from, so there could be a visible display above the door which when the alarm goes off, a image of the building would automatically display telling you what floor the fire is coming from.

Our final design looked visually strong and with the readability of the text and the choice of colour. Altogether I really enjoy Johns lesson and he open my eyes to go above and beyond whats expected. Why stop at doing a fire exit sign? Why not see how else we could use today's technology to our benefits. Why not use led displays powered by reusable energy? Food for though.