Remix Challenge: Car, Bus, Bike
There is nothing more brutal that the injudicious use of Comic Sans. It’s latest victim is this poster, ostensibly from the wall of the Muenster city public planning office.
It’s time to take matters into our own, typographical-enriched hands. To make a poster worthy of the message. Put your design in the comments and tag it “PosterRemix” on Flickr. I’ll send some awesome Firefox schwag to the creator(s) of the most awesome design(s).
To get your creative juices started, here are three remixes. One by yours truly, one by Meebo designer Mike Krieger, and one by Mr. Matt Wiebe.
RT @azaaza Remix Challenge: Car, Bus, Bike | Follow @azaaza on Twitter | All blog posts
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Tags: car bus bike, poster, posterremix, remix
crowder
I realize this is unrelated to the original design question/issue, but:
If the same 60 people are going to the same one location (as presumed by the implication that a bus is equivalent), why do they need 60 cards? Given that these cars all seem to be “compact” or larger, it seems likely that they could all share, reducing the number of cars to 15 or less. Still probably more space (and fuel) than the bus, but hardly as ridiculous as this image implies. And, if some of them got sick at whatever this massive bash they’re all carpooling to is, they could carpool home in smaller groups without inconveniencing the rest of the group. :)
crowder
I meant “cars”, not “cards”, of course.
Chas
@crowder, that scenario occurs everyday in huge cities all over the world. Just drive through a big city at rush hour and see how few people are using the HOV lane and how backed up traffic is. These people are all heading to locations within walking distance of each other. Just saying…
Aleksander
Did anyone else notice how the picture in the first panel is zoomed in, to make it look more crowded?
Aza Raskin
@Aleksander: Good catch. I was marveling at being able to watch the time pass — the shadows get longer in each picture.
Jonathan Korman
I love the concept of this poster, though I also noticed as @Aleksander did that the original contains a bit of a cheat with the scale. So I’ve done my own version, though since Flickr’s being a little uncooperative, so you’ll have to go to its Flickr page to see it.
you can find my attempt
JonathonW
This seemed like an interesting challenge, and I like the concept… you can see my attempt on Flickr.
Felipe Gomes
My attempt
crowder
@Chas: I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen. I’m saying that convincing people to carpool is perhaps as realistic as convincing them to walk or take the bus. Maybe more realistic, even.
Justin
Arguably, using “it’s” improperly ranks right up there with the injudicious use of Comic Sans. ;-)
Dylan Hafertepen
I really liked your take on it, Aza, but with a couple tweaks:
http://tinyurl.com/crwv6z
Now it’s perfect~
justin kruger
My Response, I based my remix off of Jonathon W’s. I liked his layout and the background, but I thought we SHOULD impose judgment through our use of color.
I am not sure of my choice of typography, but I thought the ‘boxy cargo crate’ look for cars make you think of storage, and the slim lined ’slim aerial’ is very metro and is clearly sleeker than cars might be. However, with bicycles i wanted to communicate how they are the most elegant and green solution, so i went with a script font.
http://tr.im/i6z0
shawnee
The automobiles are not clearly outlined, and they really do dispense into the horizon. It’s quite possible that the photographer had to attempt to “zoom in” to catch the tail end of this caravan of 60 automobiles. Not all automobiles are the same size, so this was surely a logistical conundrum. But it does get the point across quite well — the automobile-obsessed US doesn’t seem to understand the “long-term” picture of how the auto industry hurts and slows (forgive me for the pun) progress.
Tyler Rigsby
Here is my first try. I made a black one and a gray one but I far prefer the black one.
http://tinyurl.com/da3qtg
Anonymous
I immediately noticed the same thing as the first few comments: the assumption of 60 cars for 60 people, and the different zoom level for the picture of the cars.
One point nobody else seemed to make, though: who rides as close together as the bikes depicted in the third picture? Give me some space, please! :) The same holds true for the cars, as well.
And in any case, the caption should more accurately say: “How to get 60 people from the same starting place and time to the same destination place and time.” But hey, that wouldn’t work as well for an anti-car message. :)
Please don’t misunderstand me: I agree entirely that people should take advantage of public transportation when feasible. I do so myself on a regular basis. However, if I want to get from an arbitrary point A to an arbitrary point B, a quick look at something like Google Transit confirms the usual problem: walk to point C, wait X minutes, ride bus to point D, wait Y minutes, ride different bus/train/whatever to point E, walk to point B. Total time: 2-4x the time required by car. Biking has the same problem with time required, and falls back to public transportation to achieve reasonable distances.
ruth
fun project – thanks!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/virgosun/3411190660/
Nitin
it was a fun project – Thanks aza,
My Attempt
Elliot
Just something I noticed: All these posters seem to indicate that riding by bicycle takes up the least amount of space, since that comes last. What are we really going for here, least space or least gas?
Ryan
I thought this challenge was worth giving a stab. Anything to rid the world of Comic Sans.
Here’s my remix, with a little eco-flavor:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanp/3429675173/sizes/o/
thedan
you ever thought of the possibility that might NOT be the actual poster? the city of muenster is in germany, and i’d be surprised if they create a poster in english.
my guess: some person saw the picture, and “translated” it to english using comixans.
indeed, if you look at german blogs ( http://www.helge.at/2008/04/ich-bin-so-gern-mein-auto-los/ ) you can find the same picture without the comic sans…
Adam
In response to Elliot’s question, since the poster is credited in 2001, I think it was originally intended to operate on a city planning level (reducing traffic congestion). But that said, it can be just as easily applied to the sustainable urbanism dialogue (mitigating greenhouse gas emissions).
This could just be my American background talking, as I know that Germany is lightyears ahead of the US on all things sustainable.
Thought-provoking image nonetheless…
شات
@@You are the utmost extravaganza@@
John S. Allen
the Muenster poster shows the space taken by parked bicycles and vehicles, not ones that are in motion. Please see
http://john-s-allen.com/blog/?p=7
Alfred Kayser
Note, the picture is often said to originate from Munster (Germany) around 2001, but it is way older than that, and coming from The Netherlands:
“In De recreatieve stad (The Recreative City) published by the Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Social Work of the Netherlands in 1979, very similar photos appear at page 13.”
I remember using this picture in a presentation at high school around 1980 in Lelystad.
Russell Nelson
Um …. this poster is ridiculous. It ignores the obviously best solution, which are subways.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/russnelson/4480318327/
termal jel
It could be my computer, but is this video supposed to look like a stop motion video?
hemoroid
I agree with keith on the point of using silence a bit more.
deep
Hope I’m not too late to this party, but I just discovered this site… Big fan by the way.
Anyways I took this project one step further. I believe that an important aspect of great design lies in the ability to engage the user emotionally.
The ad (aside from the Comic Sans) suffers in that it simply provides information, and doesn’t challenge or contextualize the viewer.
I decided to engage the viewer with a bold question, succinctly provide the info as a tag-line, and contextualize the message with a strong visual backdrop.
I hope you don’t mind that I posted it on my blog so I could also share it with the people that stumble across my pages.
http://indiaudio.com/wordpress/2010/06/02/a-desi-dabbles-in-design/
Zayıflama Lida Fx15 Ve Biber Hapı Zlfvbh
If the same 60 people are going to the same one location (as presumed by the implication that a bus is equivalent), why do they need 60 cards? Given that these cars all seem to be “compact” or larger, it seems likely that they could all share, reducing the number of cars to 15 or less. Still probably more space (and fuel) than the bus, but hardly as ridiculous as this image implies. And, if some of them got sick at whatever this massive bash they’re all carpooling to is, they could carpool home in smaller groups without inconveniencing the rest of the group. :)
autobus
These are made of such quality product because generally these are used for the movement of people at public or outside places. To fulfill its durability purpose these are made of such high quality materials. הסעות.