The 400lb Baby
Overview
The 2012 Design Ethos Conference focused on Waters Avenue Revitalization and embedded experts in design and sustainability with local communities. Of the six themes targeting opportunities in revitalization, one focused on the role of art in cultural empowerment–and what might become of 22, 400-pound, abandoned planters.
City Perspective
In 2011 The City of Savannah Bureau of Public Development published a report emphasizing next steps in Beautification and Blight Removal,
“Reposition and reuse of cement planters that were placed along the Waters Avenue corridor as part of a partnership between the City of Savannah and a previously existing neighborhood taskforce. Establish new agreements with business and community representatives, perhaps the art community, in keeping the planters attractive and free of debris…”
Neighborhood Perspective
Before the conference, one team of graduate students in Scott Boylston’s class, The Role of Design in Social Awareness, conducted research. A recurring theme emerged from interviews,
…(While) the communities along Waters Avenue were dealing with significant socio-economic challenges, there was a belief among its residents that the assets the community already possessed were not being celebrated enough: The goodness of the people living along Waters was getting lost to the more highly visible negative elements.”
One of those community assets was (is) Jerome Meadows, a public artist who’s been living and working on Waters Avenue since 1997.
Designerly Perspective
Two years of research, design, and advocacy in the corridor culminated into six themes for the 2012 Design Ethos conference nicknamed, Do-ference. With respect to producing art as a community effort in revitalization, Jerome was selected as Community Voice for the theme, Empowering Culture. An instrumental question positioned the theme:
In what ways can a beacon of creative expression within a community be empowered to expand its reach so that the essential role of cultural identity for any healthy community can thrive?
The Problem(s)
Of the 40 planters placed along the Waters Avenue Corridor in 1976, 28 remained. 22 of them were abandoned, often used for trash. The city, the neighborhoods, and designers wanted to do something about them.
Process
Day 1
Day 2
Design Premises drafted from Day 2:
- Humanizing objects personalizes the connection people form with them. What if we encouraged the community to name the planters?
- The future of a culture depends on the future of its children. Waters Avenue cares deeply about its children. What if we treated these planters like children?
- Public art brings people together in meaningful ways. What if we encouraged workshops facilitated by Jerome?
- The planters offered a different way to think about the role of art in reflecting community and culture. How might we use the planters to facilitate conversations among residents and business owners?
Kelsey Lesko designed logo and identity system for 400lb Baby.
Day 3
Results
- Best Academy Day Care Center adopted a planter and Jerome worked with the children to make art.
- Featured on local news channels.
- Featured in Implementing Social Change conducted by SCAD Design for Sustainability together with Design Ignites Change (sponsored by Adobe Foundation and Wordstudio) and Pallegrino Collaborative.
- Presented at Eastside Concerned Citizens (ECCI) neighborhood association.
Team & Roles
- Jerome Meadows, Community Voice, Director, Indigo Sky Community Gallery & Meadowlark Studio
- Michelle Hunter, Community Voice, Cultural Affairs Contract Coordinator, City of Savannah
- Josh McManus, Design Voice, Co-founder, Create Here
- John Bielenberg, Design Voice, Founder, Project M
- David Berman, Future Voice, President, David Berman Communications
- Scott Boylston, Founder of Design Ethos Conference, Professor of Graphic Design and Sustainability at Savannah College of Art and Design
- R. Campbell, Synthesizer
- DeVena Jordan, Executive Director, All Walks of Life (AWOL)
- Tony Jordan, Director of Programs, All Walks of Life (AWOL)
Participants:
- Jenni Brown
- Matthew Cole
- Jennifer Chua
- Audrey Davenport
- Amy Drew, Owner, Amy’s School of Music
- Rainy Fu
- Emily Knight
- Kelsey Lesko
- Henry Minis
- Chris Miller
- Marina Petrova
- Katie Schulz
Go Deeper
Previous Projects on The Planters
You might be thinking, Why did the City of Savannah specifically reference the art community in its next steps for the planters? Jerome and student researchers attended community planning sessions to ensure the function of community art remained a topic on residents’ minds.
Team ARTme worked with Jerome on identifying planter conditions and conducting community art experiments.
- Annemarie Spitz, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
- Kate Bordine, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
- Laura Schoenthaler, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
- Sarah Tolzman, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
The Role of Design in Social Awareness class worked closely with Jerome and the community by collecting data from interviews and documents.
- Foram Shah, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
- Marina Petrova, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
- Tiffany Lindeborn, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
- Giang Nguyen, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
- Ying Liu, Graduate Student Researcher & Designer
In The News
August 14, 2012 Savannah’s City Span episode where Chris Brown interviews Jerome about grass roots efforts in Waters Revitalization
June 7, 2022. WTOC covers progress of Waters Avenue Revitalization Project
November 11, 2022. Corridors in Flux: Could Waters Avenue become a living, working hub for artists, entrepreneurs?
February 13, 2023. Savannah mayor says ‘Waters Avenue is back’ after completion of streetscape project. Is it?
Design Ethos
Design Ethos 2012 was presented by SCAD’s Graphic Design Department in conjunction with the Design for Sustainability program, and in partnership with AIGA Design for Good.
Read Scott Boylston’s inspiration to structure a conference of designers in a different way.
Core77 sponsored the conference and covered the unfolding in a series of articles.
400lb Baby
This documentary short, 400lb Baby, was featured on Savannah Government Television Network.
Directed by: Lubomir M. Kocka, Luke Dreser, Taylor Noll
Learning Outcomes
Community-based grassroots efforts for sustainability are highly complex and require continuous and consistent communication across multiple channels. Visualizing information helps!
Evaluating resistance to change for its root causes and addressing uncertainty possessed by many well-intentioned businesses is best explained by underlying rationale for concepts that address obstacles to the process.
Expressing new patterns of perception by explaining principles, urgent needs, and potential for success of emerging sustainable principles into every facet of business.