Sardines!

Imagine a world where an angry tangerine is newly President of the USA.

It’s freezing outside. People are protesting on every street corner. And you have no idea of how to react constructively.

I created Sardines as a not-for-profit platform for activists.

Concept

NYC was a confusing place to be in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.

New Yorkers were protesting all over the place in small factions. Phones were blowing up with dozens of invitations to activist initiatives a day.

Which ones to attend? Who to go with? Where to look for more information?

I wanted to help.

Defining goals…

I conducted interviews around the city to identify pain points and specific problems to solve.

…and tackling challenges.

1. Inaccessibility

Calendars and initiatives were mostly communicated through word of mouth.

Where to find out about all actions in your area without the right contacts?

2. Fragmented information

Dozens of channels mushroomed online, which led to confusion.

How to remain on top of a multitude of fast-paced movements?

3. UX

Better UX and design was necessary to increase engagement and participation (sorry, Google docs!)

How to display information in the most effective way?

4. Loneliness

I wanted to foster relationship that may lead to stronger communities and movements.

How to create a sense of community in the midst of all this mess?

Ideation

Going back to the user problems, I thought of product features that might make life a little easier for potential users. Some of these included:

• A crowdsourced, daily calendar of events
• An internal messaging system
• Geolocation features
• A solid search tool
• A database split into different types of causes and events
• A user-friendly interface
• Social sharing features

I then translated them into low fidelity wireframes.

Prototyping

After a few iterations, I injected a bit of life through UI, and tada! An almost functioning app.

Clickable prototype

Branding

Why ‘Sardines’?

A group of sardines is called a family. They stick together at all times and become bigger than their predators to fend them off. As soon as one of them starts moving, the group follows instinctively.*

I sketched both illustrative and abstract concepts.

The idea of  a school of sardines was appealing, although less recognizable than the silhouette of a single fish. I wanted to retain movement and energy, and chose to convey these via the use of bright colors.

I wanted to ensure that the symbol was easily recognizable in a crowd, from a distance, and was simple enough to be drawn on DIY protest signs.

Underwater tones seemed an obvious color base. I paired them with white and a warm orange for more contrast and dynamism.

Conclusion

* Sardines! was created as a part of the Branding – Creating an image continuing education module taught by Anita Zeppetelli at the School of Visual Arts, NYC.

While other students, also assigned a food at random, worked around delicate concepts such as “saffron”, “honey”, or “pine nut”, I ended up with sardines.

Nailed it.