Construction Barriers Designed to Get Noticed

Barnard College construction barrier, New York

As part of our on-going work with Barnard College, the prestigious women’s college in New York City (in partnership with Columbia University), we designed a series of construction barrier graphics to help generate excitement about their future student center and ease the disturbance of the long-term construction. Working with the same concept as the architects of the building, the construction barriers are designed as a place for interaction. Each design serves as a message board for the campus community. Our design was recently recognized in Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual for this year’s most outstanding creative work.

The first of three designs laid out a subtle 8.5 x 11-inch grid with different categories noted in each unit, ranging from rants to events to available services to graffiti. Large photographic silhouettes of students in profile (shot by Katherine Wolkoff, a Barnard alumna herself) were overlaid on the grid to give the wall a bold visual graphic and personable quality. Students immediately began engaging with the wall, using it as a community bulletin board and place for personal expression.

Barnard College construction barrier, first in series, fall 2007

The second design capitalized on the way students were using the wall to make their voices heard, and so we covered the wall in empty talk bubbles.

Barnard College construction barrier, second in series, spring 2008

The third and current design returns to the use of the silhouettes as both small and large graphic forms. The small silhouettes become pixels that create larger profiles, giving the wall different readings depending on the viewer’s proximity.

Barnard College construction barrier, third in series, fall 2008