i love detroit

I love Detroit

A CHANCE PROJECT

Location Selection

Image of courthouse entrance.

The beginning of this project started with the selection of an everyday

location--one that holds both relevance to us as a culture and also

representation of some kind of social issue. After much consideration of

several locations, we finally decided to select the criminal division of the

Wayne County Circuit Court as our location of choice. The location was

used as a starting point where we could take various elements from to

build a focus and eventually a strong concept. Using a courthouse as a

location for a project that would be based on chance seemed like it might

lend itself to a lot of random elements beyond our control.

Visiting the Site

Image of a courtroom inside the Frank Murphey Hall of Justice.

We went to the Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit on Monday,

September 21, 2009 and spent about five or six hours there going in and

out of different courtrooms where we sat in on random cases. We saw 12

cases total, a number pre-determined by the outline of the assignment.

There would be no way for us to know what type of case was going on in

any room at any given time, so regardless of any method we may have used,

everything we saw that day would have been beyond our control.

Still, we wanted to use some sort of method to try ensuring (if we could)

that we would see a variety of cases with different people, judges,

situations, etc. We started by going in the first courtroom we saw and

stayed for two cases. We then went across the hall to the opposing

courtroom, stayed for two cases, then went up to the next floor to the

opposite side and opposing room of the last case, and repeated this

process until we whitened 12 cases total. If we got to a room that was

locked or didn’t have a current case running, we went to the next available

room and continued the process from there.

Image of a judge’s desk in a courtroom.

Image of graffiti in the courthouse holding cell.

Image of the side of a police van.

Notes taken during court hearings.

Court docket for one of the judges.

From the 12 cases we witnessed, we needed to narrow them down to four

so that we could begin developing a concept from them. To do this, we used

a chance method.

Chance

Information provided on a specific court case.

Information provided on a specific court case.

We wrote down the numbers 1-12 on strips of paper. These were

representative of the 12 cases we saw in order. Then, applying the same

method used when summoning a jury, an off-duity officer drew four of our

numbers at random out of his hat.

The numbers that were selected were: 9, 6, 10 and 12.

9. Case #: n/a

6. Case #: 09-017687-01-FH

10. Case #: 09-022093-01-FH

12. Case #: 08-018563-01-FC,

08-018563-02-FC and

08-018563-03-FC

Stills from video taken while officer pulled numbers from his hat.

All four selected cases involved violence, or included elements which lead

to violence. We used this concept of violence to question why Detroit seems

like it’s maintaining the same problems (violence, racism, lack of education,

poverty, etc.) year after year.

Word map of initial concepts.

ConceptDevelopment

Research from Detroit News article.

In our opinion, it seems that the people both in and around Detroit have

become somewhat apathetic about the amount crime and violence within the

city--like it’s something we’ve all just become adjusted to or have accepted as

the way things are. Homicides are a part of everyday life in the city. Instead of

taking pride in our neighborhoods, we allow them to become run down with

garbage and ignore the abandoned houses that are left falling apart.

What we do take pride in, apparently, is our “murder city capital” title. We’ll

boost whatever reputation we can – anything is better than nothing, right?

WRONG. Why should we just accept violence, let alone be proud of it?

Violence should be unacceptable in our communities. The attitude towards it

should be: we won’t accept this, how can we help fix it?

Research from newsvine.com.

Gathering Content

Content research on metropolismag.com article and comment section.

In search of real thoughts and opinions on Detroit, we chose to conduct

our research strictly online through article comment sections and forums,

assuming that people would probably give more honest feedback if it was

made anonymously.

Content research on forums.

Refined content.

After living in the city for a few years, you hear about the attitudes and

stereotypes of Detroit. Citizens of Detroit pride themselves in the fact that

Detroit is the murder capital of America. In order to expose these attitudes

we scoured the internet and took direct quotes and statistics about Detroit

and local crime for our text. In forums and comments left on news articles, we

found that people were more open and expressive about Detroit.

This is where we found a way to approach the concept with a touch of wit and

sarcasm. We paired these opinions of the city with cold hard facts or words of

encouragement in order to create a narrative about the city and its problems.

Content Refine-ment

Refined content.

HistoricalResearchRacial tension had been building for decades and in 1967, it finally exploded in

a multitude of political, economic, and social ways. On Sunday, July 23rd, 1967

the infamous race riots broke out in the streets of Detroit and lasted over the

course of five long days.

Image taken during the 1967 Detroit riot.

Gun fire, police brutality, looting, fires and destruction overcame Detroit

affecting both the city and its citizens. In the end, 43 people lay dead, 1,189

injured and over 7,000 people had been arrested.

Much of Detroit currently looks the way it does as a result of these riots.

Furthermore, Detroit’s current problems of violence, racism and poverty all

stem in part from this event.

Image taken during the 1967 Detroit riot.

60s poster inspiration.

ReferencesWe chose the 1960s as an area of research because of the 1967 race riots,

looking at psychedelic poster art as inspiration for type and color. This

poster craze in the United States was a grassroot movement fostered

by social activism and focused on social issues rather then commercial

messages. The first wave of posters emerged from the hippie subculture

centered in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. The media and

general public related these posters to anti-establishment values, rock

music, and psychedelic drugs. The rock environment projected fields of

color and bursting strobes. Artists tried to emulate this graphically with

swirling forms and lettering that warped and bent into illegibility.

Type & ColorInspiration

We drew inspiration for color and type from the psychedelic graphic

language of the posters. Our color studies from this genre used intense

optical colors. Colors from this era were frequently printed in close-valued

complementary hues which made them vibrate.


Interstate and Serifa type studies.

Bell Centennial type studies.

Univers and Candice type studies.

Typography Using the same chance method we used when narrowing down the court

cases, we selected Candice as the typeface that would be used for the

headline quotes. Candice was designed by Alan Meeks in 1976. While it

was not a font that came out of the 1960s, it was influenced by that time

period and is reminiscent of the psychedelic poster era. Candice has been

described as a “groovy swirl font that looks like an ice cream sunday

topped with whipped cream.” This playfulness helped to reinforce the

sarcasm of the quotes.

For our sub text, we used the same chance method in selecting Univers.

Designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954, Univers was very popular in the 1960s,

especially in the corporate setting. Using this typeface for the sub text,

which predominantly dealt with factual information about Detroit, paired

well with Candice which is more romantic.

Layout

Image of color studies and composition process.

When determining text, leading, and placement of type on the grid we

reused the same chance method. We took four of the twelve case numbers

and wrote them down on slips of paper and drew just one. The case number

that was drawn was: 08-018563-02-FC. The numbers included within this

case number could then be used in a multitude of ways to determine text

size, leading and grid. All numbers had to be used within a composition,

but could be used in any way as long as leading, text size, and a grid

were made. The numbers did not have to remain in the same order. They

could also be added, multiplied, subtracted, etc. in order to get a different

number. The system was restrictive, but also allowed for exploration in

creating unexpected combinations.

Image of composition process.

Image of hand-painted type in Detroit.

SolutionIn Detroit, hand-painted signage is commonly used by local businesses.

Sign paintings are seen by more people than any other type of painting in

the city. The artists of these signs are virtually unknown, just as we plan to

be unknown. The signs are at the mercy of rain and sun, and carry an old-

fashioned image reminiscent of the industrial boom.

We thought hand-painting signs would work for design activism. We used

plywood for our substrate since it is commonly used to board up abandoned

houses and closed businesses. In a city devastated by job loss and containing

over 44,000 vacant houses, abandonment becomes a common vernacular for

urban blight.

Image of hand-painted type in Detroit.

Compositions were projected and then traced onto plywood.

Painting in the sub-text on plywood.

Painting in the headline type on plywood.

We chose Michigan Ave as our location because it is one of Detroit’s main

roads and, since the ‘67 riots, has undergone a significant change. Prior to

the riots, Michigan Ave, like many areas of Detroit, was full of life and activity.

However, since then, it has become a long, desolate avenue filled with trash,

boarded-up abandoned buildings, graffiti and homelessness. We wanted to

place our messages in an area that was once thriving but has been deeply

affected by crime and apathy.

Location

Intersection where I LOVE DETROIT is installed.

Attaching sign to abandoned building.

Street view of installation.

Image of completed signs.

Image of completed sign.

Image of completed signs.

Image of completed sign.

<3 I LOVE DETROIT

i love detroit

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