As a designer I believe one of the most important responsibilities I have as a professional is to make sure my work has a positive impact on the audience and the community. One major things that I noticed when I started studying graphic design was the prominence of corporate design. It really is the focus of most designers with design firms being placed snugly in urbanized America. Large corporations and cities have the resources for extensive design projects and branding, but the community that often gets overlooked is small-town America. Many of us originate from small communities. There is a lot that makes them important, unique, and valuable. There are many large-scale projects for social, economic, and political change that are of great value, but I believe it is always important as a designer to take the time to focus on the small issues that I can directly change or impact around my local community.
I was raised in Covington, Ohio with a population of around 2,500 and graduated with about sixty of my classmates. One of the important parts of living in a small town was that you really got to know everyone and everything at least a little bit. With the This is Your Region project that was exactly my goal, to create an effective campaign that put a spotlight on the community’s local area and identify what exactly there is to do for people who may have lived here all their lives and the many newcomers that filter in and out of the many universities in the area.
This is Your Region is an application targeted towards members of the greater Lima region community, old and new. It includes local community event updates, interactive landmark exploration, and rewards & incentives for participating and collecting landmarks. Users can collect landmarks only when they travel to the physical location much like geo-caching.
In addition to it’s digital presence, This is Your Region also features physical materials like printed map handouts to help introduce the concept of the application to those who might not be as technologically savvy, a call-for-entry handout that provides the opportunity for local artists to create the artwork for the landmark icons, and printed vinyl landmark icons that would be placed throughout the storefronts and display the works of those local artists.
Using the non-profit, Greater Lima Region LLC as a partner, I devised a way to create a cultural spotlight that also provides exposure for local businesses and community events. Two of the most important qualities for the project are interactivity and discovery. The campaign pushes you to discover areas that you may have never really thought about or been to and learn more about them in the process. It puts a spotlight on the local community and brings it together right at your fingertips.