One Day In Our Park

This project offers an excellent case-study in melding design research with design outcome. The design process required intense and sustained observation and research, the distillation of these observations into concise and engaging stories as well as a deep awareness of place.

This documented research then became the basis for the exploration of materials and an appropriate typographic language. A knowledge of how people use and move through the 360 metre length of the space was integral in breaking the research into 45 smaller ‘vignettes’ — Books read silently under trees 45; Shapes Imagined in the Clouds 148; Squeaky Pram Wheels 59; Lost Water Bottles 21, etc. This user-centred approach allowed both spectacle and intimacy in the same design.

The typographic execution is extraordinarily complex – involving over 1.6 million tiles across a length of 360 metres. It required the design of four custom typefaces, meticulously crafted for the specific tile and grout dimensions. These typefaces were named to indicate their tile height – Holland 4, 14, 44 and 84. The design had to be typographically elegant, yet able to work within a modular production system. The tiling was mosaiced off-site then brought back on-site in square sheets for easier installation.

The design team exceeded the expectations of the brief in two ways – firstly, in authoring the content of the communication design through research, and secondly, through the specialist typographic skills of the studio. It not only answered the creative and technical aspects but created a dramatic and meaningful design work destined to become a landmark.

The One Day In Our Park is a model of user-centred design. This is reflected through the development of content (reflecting their stories, their lives), the careful choice of materials (reflecting their histories and sense of place), the ease of accessibility (designed to be clear and engaging) as well as the beauty of the work itself (adding value to their environment).

The substantial investment and care put into the deep observation, rigorous development and meticulous crafting of the work itself all display a high level of design excellence. The uniqueness of approach is also indicative of excellence — put simply, this kind of response at this scale has never been done as a communication design project anywhere in the world.

This makes the work not only significant to Kensington, but also to Melbourne and Australia, making it an international design benchmark for expressing the relationship between people and place. One Day in Our Park reinforced Melbourne’s status as a city that loves, celebrates and invests in extraordinary design and cultural storytelling.

And importantly, its expected lifespan of over 50 years will ensure this becomes a permanent legacy of design excellence.

One Day In Our Park creates a truly innovative design approach to relating people and place. This is done through both the design of the stories as well as the compelling visual language through which those stories are told.

Importantly, this project breaks down the distinctions between communication design and urban design. It proposes a new trans-disciplinary approach to typographically-based storytelling as built form. It is not signage, nor does it convey any promotional intent, but instead occupies a new authorial position through which communication design can redefine itself.

Challenging the common public perception of communication design being ephemeral, the sheer permanence of this work represents a solid commitment to storytelling, community, meaning and design. The complexity and beauty of the various bespoke letterforms employed across that extended length makes this project completely unique and innovative.

The four custom typefaces were meticulously crafted to map upon the system of tile and grout dimensions, each solving a specific communicative problem at different relative scales. Their beauty is achieved by typographic clarity and integrity.

The monumental scale of this project also makes it a very innovative design proposition. Its extraordinary 360 metre length not only steered the choice of materials (tiles) but also the communication strategy of breaking up the stories so they could be enjoyed as small bite-size narratives, capturing the myriad of tiny and epic things we all experience on a daily basis.

Being such a permanent design project, the enduring impact of One Day In Our Park will play out across a very long lifespan. The project has already been used as a practice research model within several design academies as well as a rich case study for teaching new generations of designers in embedding communication design within an urban environment at scale.

The response to the work from the local community has been extraordinarily positive because they see their own lives reflected within it. It has been described as poetic and beautiful, with one local resident writing “I ride my bike past it every day and it always makes me smile”. The project has already spawned an activity poster, whereby children can reveal two of the stories through joyfully colouring by numbers.

Being so visually striking at such a large scale, it will doubtlessly become a landmark of the area, as well as a potential cultural destination. By being centred upon the adjacent park, the project helps to promote the use of this healthy community resource. The choice of tiles as the single material in the project reflects this long-term design strategy of environmental sustainability.

One Day in Our Park strengthens Melbourne’s reputation in many ways. Not only does it reinforce Melbourne’s enduring culture of storytelling through its use of a poignant and poetic narrative, it also represents a feat of design and construction, involving 1.6 million tiles installed over 360 metres involving the design of four custom typefaces.

The impact of this work has not only been felt locally but will be at an international level in showcasing the innovation and depth of Australian design, people and place.