PERSONAL ESSAY

When focusing on the designing of non-places there is a connection between  visual communication and creating the space. Visual communication designers bridge  the gap between the visuals and the built space. Though building the space is mainly  left to interior designers, industrial designers, and architects, there is still room left for  visual communicators to contribute. Visual Communication Designers are able to inform and guide the other designers to design for the artificial environment. The  project in focus is mental health and suicide prevention in parking garages on Ohio State’s campus. When designing for the non-places such as parking garages, creating  a culture of care is important in creating the space’s identity.  

Throughout my involvement in this project, I felt the need for all disciplines of  design to contribute their efforts. When creating a workshop, prototypes, and then eventually an exhibition, the work and thinking is better when different designers work  together. Though we are all designers, all of the disciplines think differently about the problem. Working and collaborating together, the industrial, interior, and visual communication designers are able to bounce ideas to create the best outcome. Being  a visual communication designer, I was able to participate in the workshop while also contributing to the documentation of the process. Being able to observe from the outside allowed me to process the information in a clear and concise way. In regards to my role in creating the space, using my knowledge of visual communication, I am  able to contribute different ideas than the other design disciplines. In visual communication design, we focus on being able to create things for the user while also making things readable, understandable, and visually appealing. While most of our work is done virtually, these concepts can be applied when designing for non-places. 

Designers have a large role in designing spaces in general and in designing  non-places, such as developing concepts for a parking garage. In regards to the topic  of designing for suicide prevention in parking garages, designers are able to view this  project from the standpoint of the user. The premise of this project was to create a culture of care in the garages and throughout Ohio State’s campus. The original  solution was to build bars at the top of the garages to prevent suicide attempts and death. This was a quick solution that almost erased the problem and erased the need  for care about the problem. Creating a culture of care is important to show that the problem is something that not only needs to be fixed but that people want to fix it. 

Throughout this project, we are focused on creating spaces out of a non-place,  the floors of parking garages. Parking garages are usually places that people pass by  and do not think about. At Ohio State, the parking garages are gray and concrete buildings that are typically overlooked. They are also a spot where people have  suffered and passed away. Creating a culture of care in these non-places will help create an identity for the garage. In Marc Augé’s, Non-Places, he quotes “The space  could be to the place what the word becomes when it is spoken: grasped in the ambiguity of being accomplished, changed into a term stemming from multiple conventions, uttered as the act of one present (or one time), and modified by the  transformations resulting from successive influences (65).” Here, Augé makes an analogy between a word being spoken is a non-place becoming a space. This explains our goal as designers throughout this project, to design a parking garage that exists as  a space and has meaning. We believe that this can be done by creating a culture within the parking garages on campus. Creating a culture of care means focusing on the student’s well-being above anything else.  

In conclusion, transforming non-places, parking garages, is not an easy task to  accomplish while focusing on suicide prevention. There is the issue of being sensitive  to the topic while also trying to find a solution that can please the masses. I believe that as designers, we have the best knowledge to help find a solution. I also believe  that creating a culture of care is key. Using this mentality as designers will allow the best solution to come forward.