Massey Uni offer of help: solve a problem for CAN

I received this from Karl Kane, from Massey Uni, Wellington. He's a capable man, with talented students, and understands CAN's mission. I'd like to take them up on this offer.

We could go big:
- how to get more people biking, more often
- how to convince central govt and councils to invest in cycling
- reposition cycling as an everyday, mainstream activity

or smaller:
- recruit and retain active CAN members
- design, market  and promote CAN's Workplace Bikeability programme
- design a cycling campaign

I'm going to meet him and would like your thoughts. What's something you'd really like to see achieved?
______________

Hi Patrick. We are contacting you about becoming involved in a Massey University School of Design course. We would be keen to chat about working with the CAN as part of our 300-Level (Year Three) Design and Business paper held in the second semester of the year.

The paper provides the platform for our students to apply their learning to a "real world" problem or opportunity, and sees inter-disciplinary teams (like small agencies comprised of marketing, digital/interactive, graphics designers etc) see a project through from client brief to a final pitch over a 12 week period. The idea of taking a non-profit organisation such as CAN and addressing a problem/opportunity it faces through design is very appealing, and it is a wonderful opportunity for any organisation to tap into the pool of the very best young strategically-minded creatives before they are absorbed into cost-prohibitive creative agencies.

We have worked very successfully with businesses and organisations ranging from the Phoenix football team and Wellington Cricket, to the Special Olympics, the United Nations, and theatre companies, all of who used a wide cross section of the work produced in collaboration with the students. All we need is a strategic problem or opportunity you are facing- 'create a coherent and integrated visual identity', 'recruit and connect members', that kind of broad agenda.

If this is something you are interested in exploring, perhaps it is easiest we meet-up for a chat?

Look forward to it and thanks in advance for your time,

Karl Kane and Anna Brown, 222.382 Design and Business, Massey University School of Design

Groups audience: 
- Private group -

Comments

Awesome! I reckon CAN could do with a design makeover for a start?

I think that the

- recruit and retain active CAN members
- design, market  and promote CAN's Workplace Bikeability programme
- design a cycling campaign

is more achievable.

The membership thing is on the Committee's to-do list, and the Bikebaility programme is a key part of CAN's financial future. The "Design a cycling campaign" could be an excellent resource for local groups.

 

Not wanting to be too negative, the 1st three on the list

- how to get more people biking, more often
- how to convince central govt and councils to invest in cycling

- reposition cycling as an everyday, mainstream activity

are Tasks Worthy of Hercules. They are also too open-ended for a reasonable student project, in my view. In many respects, the 2nd three on the list are ways of achieving the 1st three

Good luck with the meeting!

David H

yes, good analysis, the first list seemed like major tasks that are part of CAN mission/purpose, so better to tackle some more identifiable bits that work toward these.

I will have a think about this tomorrow during my trip to Auckland and back for NZTA SCP meeting and post then what I think.

cheers

Graeme

How about a low-budget multi-media campaign addressing the problem of glass bottles being smashed on our roads all over the country.

I remember this being a big issue pretty much everywhere when I was the old Pat at CAN. Yet, aside from a little extra street sweeping (increasingly unlikely in these times of uber-tight budgets) there's unlikely to be anything done about it.

Cheers,

Simon K

 

We've done "Stop at Red" and we've done "The Good Bunch". What other creative ways to get the "share the road" message out to all road users are there that these guys can dream up?

Glen

Message: Slow down. Move over.

Throughout the ages there have been campaigns showing the road from a
bicyclists perspective; storm drains, car doors, broken glass, wet
leaves, loose gravel, etc, used to remind motorists to slow down and
give cyclists room. I would go one step further and remind motorists
that they are responsible to either overtake cyclists safely, or wait
until overtaking can be done safely. Done right, this can also remind
bicyclists to stay away from the door zone and out of the gutter.

One I haven't yet seen: Share the road, not the lane. Wait until it's
safe, then move over when passing cyclists.