nancy

posted on
February 18th, 2010

Today, I was informed that Anoroc will be teaming up with a charity organization focusing on medical relief in Haiti. I cannot even begin to express my excitement for the opportunity to do (emergency) relief design.

About a year ago, I designed this signage system after the earthquake in Sichuan, China. Being born Chinese and still having a firm grasp on my native language, I combined Chinese and English typography into a system of prefabricated signs that you would just stick in or place onto the dirt, directing a city full of lost people to fundamental facilities, such as hospitals, schools, and residential areas. All signs are easy to assemble, place, and remove. I also designed bilingual stickers that are placed on top of objects that were either safe or dangerous to stand near during an aftershock.

Of course signage design is only a small part of relief design. In terms of medical relief, design possibilities will include social media (blog), identity (say an ambulance is coming and you want to be able to spot them from far away), and packaging design (airdropping medical kits). There are many more possibilities waiting to be explored.

One thing is for sure, design can make a difference. This makes sitting behind a computer screen much more heroic… Well, a little bit, anyway.