Washtenaw County Health Department Sidewalk Art
Ypsilanti, MI / summer 2019
As part of the KaBoom! Play Everywhere grant, I was selected by the Health Department to create sidewalk art as part of a renovation for their courtyard that would encourage play and healthy eating while communicating cultural inclusiveness (Aside from the English-speaking majority, there’s also large groups of Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking individuals in Ypsilanti.) I sketched out the whole design on the raw concrete with industrial sharpie first and then primed those surfaces with a concrete/masonry bonding primer, and then painted 2 layers of the colors which were an epoxy-based self-priming concrete/garage paint, with the second layer incorporating an anti-skid Rustoleum additive.
Finished Product
Progress Shots
Final Design Submission + Original Concepts/Revisions
Main courtyard design. Overall the action and flow of the design was retained. The main changes were made in placement and subtraction/addition of certain fruits and vegetables to keep a visual harmony of the long path, especially in regards to color balance and shape size.
Bus stop path design. Similar to the above courtyard design, the flow and action was retained with the main changed being in color alteration and changes in the action marks, whether that be color or placement.
Below are all the variations of the design made. Initially I had a much more dark and neon concept in mind that would cover all the concrete, but after a lot of talking and thinking and sketching, we overhauled the design to be much more concise in its concepts of play and eating healthy, so we went with exposed concrete and only sticking with imagery of fruits and vegetables with simplistic, action-focused motifs and prompts to compliment them.
