Making Fun 2 Favorite 

Oh, the lack of humanity!
We’re defined by our commute. Home to work, work to home, rinse and repeat. We can blame the inundation of ugly mass advertising or distracting technology for society’s decline into autopilot, but modern culture is bored by the spaces in between. There is little choice in the quantity or quality of information we are transmitting in a given day. Thus, we are conditioned to tune out the transitory period between destinations and transfix on our personal bubbles. Apathetically checking-out has become an escape. The space between Point A and Point B, the outside environment, is reduced to little more than a background blur.

Yet, our surroundings offer so much more than ordinary mundane street corners and sidewalks. Public environments provide opportunities for human interaction, adding to the communal narrative and chronology of a space. Without curiosity, however, we lose out on the pleasure of discovery.

So how do we shake things up? We reclaim the urban landscape.

Making Fun reawakens us from our boredom-induced purgatory through surprise, humor, curiosity, and fun. By remixing vernacular visuals, this project makes hurried passersby to do a doubletake, inciting observation and consideration of the space they travel through. The signs don’t detract from the environment, but add to it. Taken in at a glance, these signs speak a civic language with a humous twist, warranting a second look. They effectively engage people and reconnect them to the civil environment through something distinctly human: Personified crosswalk buttons that are enthusiastic, flirty, or indignant. Hopscotch that scales the side of wall. A 3-inch tall “Keep Off The Grass” sign defending a patch of weeds in the crack of a sidewalk. The result is a momentary lapse from our repetitive A-to-B trajectory to react to something unexpected: an doubletake, a smile, or even a chuckle. In these small moments, people become cognizant of the present moment outside their private routine bubbles, embracing the unpredictable world around them. Making Fun provides a solution for societal disengagement in public spaces on a local scale. Commutes are a necessary evil, but inspiring commuters to keep an eye out for the next punchline is what makes the difference.