On the Move Design students inject fun into the TTC

OCAD University's Design Competition, presented by the Faculty of Design, is an annual event wherein interdisciplinary teams of 3 to 6 students are presented with a design challenge — usually a real-world issue — and over the course of an extended weekend asked to respond with their solutions. Faculty advisors with expertise relating to the challenge are on hand on Saturday to answer questions about concepts and technicalities, and students must present their designs by the end of day on the following Monday. Many OCAD U graduates cite the challenge as one of the most important experiences in their time at the university. This year’s challenge, On the Move, posed the question, “How do we make the TTC experience better?” The challenge’s brief stated: Enormous amounts of energy, money and brain power are invested in improvements that often fail. Cars are designed to go faster, while speed limits are enforced and roads are jammed. By contrast, a few innovative ideas have proven truly inspiring. TTC has just fewer than 1.5 million riders per day — 200,000 per day at Bloor station alone — totalling more than 471.2 million riders in 2009. And yet, only 29 percent of Toronto-area residents leave their cars at home. Design a way of improving the TTC experience. Show the impact your idea would have on Toronto public transit riders and staff through a short movie. Your options are wide open for design proposals. They can include: installations, campaigns, interior redesigns, design activism, system redesigns and more. Be ambitious, creative and playful. It is important to note that any positive experience should be one that reaches as wide and inclusive an audience as possible; therefore, bear in mind the ways in which your creative approach could have maximum impact on that wide target audience, and how you may affect them.