Safe Agua
Designmatters, Art Center College of Design
Typecraft Wood & Jones / Pasadena, CA c2010
156 p ; 8 x 10 in.
print & collage
Safe Agua is a Designmatters class focusing on sustainable development. During the fall of 2009, the class traveled to Santiago, Chile to "develop new tools, products, systems and methods of storing, utilizing, transporting and conserving water in order to help break the cycle of poverty in “campamentos” (known as slums are known in Chile) and transitional housing communities built by
Un Techo Para Mi Pais (UTPM)." (
source) The students lived within the campamentos and observed the inhabitants, fully understanding the inefficiency and difficulties of living without running water. Working with the Chilean families, the students divided into teams and developed
six projects that bettered the lives of the campamento dwellers. Two of the projects have already been made into working prototypes, and the entire project was recently published in Design Observer's
Change Observer.
During the spring of 2010, Safe Agua branched out to form two independent study classes, a motion team to create an
animated short film, and a print team to produce a book that covers the project in full detail. Instructed and art directed by Lisa Wagner, our group consisted of six students: four graphic designers and two illustrators. Each designer was initially given a section of the book to work on. I worked on the project section with illustrator
Ping Zhu and also created the two featured collages. The book took two terms to complete and was released in August for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
Instructor/art director: Lisa Wagner
Illustrators:
Evangeline Joo,
Ping Zhu
Graphic designers:
Pei-Jeane Chen, Karen Ko,
Carlo Llacar,
Eric Mathias
