CityFabric Co.

Our 4 Day Walking Campaign w/ Kickstarter in NYC

walkyourcity:

WYC [IDEAS CITY] from Walk [Your City] on Vimeo.

Kickstarter invited us to NYC to showcase our new Walk [Your City] sign builder to prototype a walking tour throughout the Lower East Side. 

We highlight the process in the video above.

1. Wed - We arrived 
2. Thurs - We planned and created the signs via walkyourcity.org, our fabrication partners produced the signs.  
3. Fri - Signs arrived (overnighted to us) and we installed
4. Sat - We showcased our web application and mission at IDEAS CITY at Kickstarter’s Booth! 

Go head! Make 2 signs (on us!) during our “Citizen Beta” that finishes up on Friday June 14th! 

 

Citizen Beta! Take action. Make signs on our wayfinding wizard!

REALLY HAPPY to announce the launch of our beta sign wizard! 

walkyourcity:

For Citizen Beta, we will fabricate the first 200 signs you make on our platform, include installation materials, and deliver to your door step, all for free so you can take action and promote walkability on your block! 

Walk [IDEAS CITY] with Kickstarter and the “Creative City”

walkyourcity:

A big part of our heart is with Kickstarter, helping us birth both of our civic-minded projects (Wear You Live in 2011 and Walk [Your City] in 2012).  When we got a call from Stephanie of Kickstarter requesting us to join them in their booth at IDEAS CITY in the Lower East Side, NYC at the beginning of May - we undoubtedly said yes.

The request was a bit open, but a few things were clear - they wanted to showcase our platform, the signs, and the capability of our project.

We had some goals: 

1. Get our sign wizard technology complete enough to use it in NYC to rapidly prototype a unique guerrilla wayfinding project 
2. Showcase that technology at Kickstarter’s booth 
3. Help visitors to the festival wander through the LES
4. Rapidly prototype the sign campaign, serving as the first “User” of our platform. 

The Folks from the New Museum (they organize the festival) mentioned to Kickstarter that a lot of folks come to the festival but do not check out all that the LES has to offer. We wanted to help that problem so we decided to plan four distinct walking tours a la guerrilla signs. This is not the exactly how our platform will normally be used, but we were up for the challenge! 

A detail of my escapades are below:

Wed May 1: Upon arriving, I immediate went to the miLES co-working space to meet with Phoebe from Fourth Arts Block to help me with LES resources and planning (Thank you Phoebe!! You were super helpful in making the trip a success!).

Thurs May 2: I had to plan the entire campaign and create all the signs (with our online sign wizard - you can see it in the video!) to export and send them to our trusted manufacturer in the Triangle by 2pm. Our Manufacturer then expedited the fabrication process and got them to FedEx for overnight deliver by 6pm. Pretty. Awesome. 

In the evening, I jumped over the river into Manhattan for an OpenPlans get-together thanks to Twitter and Aaron Ogle. I was able to catch up with the mighty force that is Frank Hebbert. 

Fri May 3: The signs arrived by 10am, less than 24 hours from when I started creating them online. That afternoon I organized and installed the signs with two good friends from my days at UNC Planning School, Anisha Steephen and Lauren Wang. Huge thanks to both Anisha and Lauren for not only help install, but provide shelter and rest amidst a crazy hectic could days. Lauren was the fab fotog and Anisha was deputy guerrilla.  We used the google map I created to install the signs efficiently, as the signs created paths through the LES - not organized around intersections (like we usually do). 

Sat May 4: I repped Walk [Your City] under the roof of Kickstarter’s tent! Kickstarter provided a huge monitor to show folks our fresh online platform (pre-launch!). We received so much wonderful support from a diverse group of visitors - really validating the worthiness of our quick trip. Rachel Sterne Haot even stopped by to listen and head nod for a couple minutes.  Once I become suspicious it might be her, I broke out the civic wonk talk and she maintained focus, I was impressed.