The Issues
Why does this matter?
Despite the alternatives available, large numbers of OSU students in Corvallis are still driving to campus. Dependence on car travel is a major financial burden on student drivers, a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and requires large amounts of valuable land to accommodate parking that could be used for other vital purposes, such as green space, housing, and classrooms.
My Findings
The survey I conducted of OSU student drivers found that they were paying hundreds of dollars each month in costs related to their vehicles. They also rarely acquired their vehicle on their own and depended on help to purchase it.
Some of the self-reported limitations to potential bike and bus ridership included lack of awareness of routes and services. There was also an expressed need for improvements to infrastructure such as bus frequencies, bike paths, and safety.
The Solution
A Theory of Change
A more sustainable OSU campus and student body requires both individual awareness and systemic change. By making students more aware of the personal benefits to car-free travel, we can increase use of the bus system and bike infrastructure. This would build a larger community constituency that can be organized to advocate and press policymakers for transportation changes that would further grow the constituency. This virtuous cycle would improve the environment, move people more efficiently, and financially benefit the city and its residents.
Effective community advocacy is driven first and mostly by interpersonal organizing. To grow the base of an organization, media and design can be used to inspire and persuade the public. Uninitiated individuals can be motivated to connect with the movement and its organizers, becoming an organizer themselves who can reach out to more people.
The Project
Develop a brand identity and messaging line for a student organization that encourages students to take sustainable transportation modes and advocates for sustainable city policy.
Design and produce a suite of campaign materials that spread the message around campus and be distributed to individual students to promote the organization.
What’s Your Goefficient?
In addition to transportation advocacy, a Goefficient is a mental device that individuals can use to assess their transportation habits. They can take incremental steps to travel more without a car and benefit themselves, the environment, and their community.
Design
Visual Identity
I wanted the Goefficient brand to be friendly, forward thinking, and evocative of the experience and concept of navigation through the urban environment. I took heavy inspiration from the way finding and map systems of major metro systems.
The 3 versions of the Geofficient logo refer to the 3 incremental steps to raise one’s personal Goefficient. Versions 1 and 2 combine together to the complete version 3. For the tabling materials, I used the city grid map of Corvallis as a textural motif.
Applications
Campus-centered bus map. 3 recruitment and mobilizing posters. 4 pin button. 3 die-cut stickers. Goefficient lifestyle brochure.
