My Vision

"Your vison of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have. Without having a goal it's difficult to score." 

One of the first sentences of Paul Arden's book "It's not how good you are, It's how good you want to be" was one of profound impact. As I sat trying to design my business cards to be produced for upcoming graduate interviews, I was stuck with the problem of how I would refer to myself. At the end of this year I can no longer hide behing the term "student" but as I will be graduating with a Town Planning degree do I simply call myself a town planner? What about my interests in urban and graphic design? sustainable and temporary architecture? I started to think "How good do I really want to be?" and the answer was I want someone to feature me in their "Urban Hero" article just like mine on Candy Chang and a number of others to come. The solution came to me unexpectedly when I realised "Urban Hero" was not the right term - I want to be someone who brings about change and challenges the way cities function. What I want to be is part of a network of; 

Urban Hero - Candy Chang

I have decided, due to how much I love doing city. design. buys to start another weekly column, dedicated to modern urban heros that are doing their bit to make our cities more sustainable, functional and fun. As much as I love Jane Jacobs and Kevin Lynch I feel like everyone doing something to shape our urban realm deserves a little credit and a little praise. So today I want to lavish praise on Candy Chang who I have been a die hard fan for since I first saw her TED Talk. 

It's Good to be Here project via Candy Chang

Candy Chang is an artist (one may even say an urban artist) in New Orleans, who based on her biography, aims to make people more contemplative when within cities. Despite me saying that urban heros didn't need to be urban designers or architects, Candy is both - with a degree in graphic design to boot. She has undertaken a huge variety of public art and design projects to make people really think and interact with the urban environment. Most renowned is her "Before I die _____" wall where people were provided with chalk to fill in the blank (live abroad, change the world, hug a sloth). Her "It's good to be here" project featured above was designed to make people stop and appreciate the city. But the project I find the most exciting started with the "I wish this was" project. 

"I wish this was" bollard via Candy Chang

Free stickers starting with "I wish this was" were provided with the direction to place them on vacant shop fronts throughout the city with what you wish they were being used as. Not only does this provide a great form of guerrilla public consultation and free expresion, it also allows for greater personalisation (there you go Kevin Lynch) of the public realm. Candy Chang also gives full permission for public use of her photos and recreations of her projects in other cities as long as the original inspiration is credited, what a way to give back and change our cities! 

"I wish this was" store front via Candy Chang