Garden Center 2
My map is of Garden Center #2 in Laguna Woods, Ca. The center is diverse with many forces that I have been a part of for several years. This garden center has been here since 1965 with many of the gardeners having the same garden plots for almost 30 years.
Hydrating Forces
A garden’s life blood is water and so the force of hydration within the garden center is critical to its survival. Here, I have represented the force of hydration as the foundation for the rest of the garden both theoretically and logistically. What isn’t seen here is the myriad of pipes that connect to each of the gardeners plots. With over 400 vegetable plots and 120 tree plots, the water is really everywhere as each gardeners is responsible for accessing water from their neighbors lead. Some plots have 2-3 outlets of water within their plots.
Giving Forces
Many of the members of the garden center have come together over the years to grow food for the local food pantries. Lou, one of the gardeners with a long history at the garden center had upwards of 20 plots at one time. Lou kept track of how much food he grew and donated for the past 10 years with 100’s of pounds donated every year. Additionally, there are tables located throughout the center where people will leave various things such as food and excess seeds and seedlings from their gardens.
Creative Forces
The gardens are a place where people play in the dirt and express themselves with the design of their plots. Many of the gardeners have personalized their plots with brightly painted signs, statues and other works of art. For some, it may not be too much about gardening anymore than it is about self-expression. It’s also wonderful to see people re-using in the garden center; gardeners are resourceful people and will create something from very little materials. Here we see a headboard used at the base of a shallow bed. I can imagine sugar snap peas covering the rungs in early fall.
Renewal Forces
The forces of renewal are hard to map within the garden center because in reality, the entire garden center is a force of renewal. Every year gardeners look forward to the seasons where they can grow their favorites vegetables. Each season is renewal in itself. Here, I have taken the concept of renewal to be physical rest, rejuvenation and coming together into the common and not so common resting areas of the center. During late afternoons and weekends it’s not uncommon to find a handful of gardeners eating lunch and sharing ideas about how to get the best tomato.
Transformational Forces
There are many forces of transformation in the garden center. Many of the transformational forces feel much like forces of renewal as there is a lot of overlap in the concept if looked at from various angles. Here the force of transformation is looking at the constant state of construction in the garden center. Many of the current structures are more than 30 years old. In the late 80s gardeners began building structures to minimize theft and personalize their space.
Exercise 3.1.1
According to this new map, there definitely seems to be a strong community of gardeners. Considering the amount of green area, the name of this site, and the fact that many gardeners have had the same garden plot for almost 30 years, this is fairly obvious. But what I also see is that almost all of the plots are assigned, which would indicate that the surrounding community has become quite involved in this site. I am curious about the repair areas, what exactly that means and how that affects the space, from this iteration of the map it looks very contained to just the pink spots but perhaps it actually extends past that in some way? Also, it seems that there is a nice distribution of tools, mulch, and rest areas so that could emphasize that gardening is hard work, so the establishment is trying to make this center convenient by including these amenities throughout the center.
Hi John,
I am glad you found a new site for your map that you can hone in on, explore different forces, and be more excited about! So far, your map looks great, it has a nice palette, a very nice green base which, by your legend, shows that it is actually identifying something specific on the map. I do think that at this moment you are just plotting the literal things that you can find walking around the Garden Center – like this would actually be an artsy visitors map because you can see the walkways and the different amenities clearly. Of course you are still early in your exploration of this site, so I can’t wait to see what other forces you find acting on the Garden Center!
John!
Great looking maps. The outline on your maps is very clear and the contrast in your colors is great. I’d choose another color besides blue for traffic because at first, I thought it was a body of water.
Some might tell you to de-saturate the background to make it grayscale but I think it works alright as-is. One thing you may consider is reducing the opacity of your color overlays—I was curious to see what was behind them and found myself looking at the other maps to see.
The forces you chose are very interesting. Transformational and Healing are forces I don’t normally find on a map. If for whatever reason you separate these maps from the website, I’d make sure to include your descriptive text on the graphic itself, because these forces need context. I think the amount of description you wrote is for each one is the perfect amount; succinct and descriptive.
Repost feedback for Office Hour 11/8 (Th):
Your resresentation shouldn’t suggest that different forces look like the same thing. Avoid overlaying forces because it may give you a hard time to allow the forces to “interact” a bit more. Think about the field of traffic flow. One of the hardest things you will encounter is breaking information design (e.g., levels of hierarchy, designing for visual choices). Think about how our phones capture different datasets and didn’t get to map all information. For instance, we already have existing traffic lends that come with our phone apps, what else is not being captured? Consider chasing these things and describe the “level of confusion” through your mapping. Use objects to help you picture how different experiences begin and end.
Hi John!
I really loved the forces you chose for your area! I wonder if it’s possible to display growth and decay as a subset to your transformational force? For example, the Laguna Hills Mall with the three anchor department stores closed, but in turn did other stores crop up? In more dark terms, growth/decay can also be a hotspot at the hospital, festivals, traffic, and even perhaps nature through seasonality changes. I’m not totally sure if California has seasons though, you know better than I do if the plants/tree change colors.
Speaking of dark forces again, I was taken aback (in a good way) that you were cognizant of the exploitative forces that happen at festivals. Do you think there are also exploitative forces happening at the hospital? And perhaps none in your tightly guarded, secure community?
Hi Cindy!
I love your comments and concepts. There is a lot to think about with the transformations. I think about how you represented it your maps with growth and newness, when that may be a single force.
The exploitative view within the forces is interesting, it is there and I can only imagine the dimensions that could be revealed that we may be more sensitive to if we realized it was so “close to home” literally.
Hi John, I think you did a great job of displaying each force. I really like how your forces have diverse scales and shapes. I think that they will be well balanced if they all gather together on the final map. One thing I noticed was that the color for the traffic is soft while the healing area color is strong. Maybe those two colors could be switched with each other? The transparency will definitely bring an interesting effect on the specific area. I especially like the festival areas and I wonder if you plan to represent each type of festival on your final map. Great work!!
Hi Young,
Thank you for your comments, they are very on topic for me at the moment. I am thinking about how various colors have an opportunity to represent their forces better. I also received similar feedback about the depth of the forces, identifying the different types. I think that makes a lot of sense as part of my maps evolution.
Hi John,
I really like your five forces, I can imagine the impact they have on your community! Particularly the festival forces, I am sure those motivate people to be more involved in the local community, and the healing / protective forces as well probably make people feel safer living at this location.
Your maps very clearly outline the forces, I do wish there was a little more contrast between the traffic blue color and the base map, but otherwise they are easy to see! Your festivals map makes me want to look into these events at some point and see if I can make any!
Also, not sure if this was intentional or not, but I like the red for the hospital – it reminds me of the Red Cross!
Thanks Liliana! I appreciate your comments and it seems like there are some consensus on a few of the colors that need to change.
Yes, that is Red Cross Red from the Red Cross Brand Identity page! I need to cite it or call it out somehow. I was thinking about changing it to a purple overlay as that is the color of the hospital, but not all healing in the force is under the hospital. I like the Red too… thanks!
Hi John, it’s really interesting to me that your gated community is so large. I wasn’t really able to tell from your post- is it only residences inside the gate?
Your representation of the forces was very clear, and it will be enlightening to see multiple forces on one map in the next part. One thing I might think about changing is the use of that light blue and grass green, which to me on a map says water and green spaces.
Hi Clara,
Thank for your feedback. The gated community is actually much larger than this. I am thinking about putting something in for context, maybe a blow up, but this area is about 1/6th of the size of the community.
I am also thinking about bringing some transparency to the overlays so some detail would come through; it may be possible to see that it is consistently homes that way. The only non-residential buildings are community centers, this would be the overlap with festival.
Hey John, I found it interesting that one festival area is located within the gated community. Does that mean festivals utilized in that area are strictly for community only? The colors you utilized were good. I think the one I had the most difficult time of looking at was the traffic color since it blended with the rest of the background.
Hey Daniel, thanks for your feedback.
Yes, that is what it means, good catch Daniel! It’s actually a point of controversy with the community and the access to certain events for the general public.
I see what you mean with the road ways and that color blending in. What do you think about a thinner, but darker blue line? Staying away from the reds, yellows and greens as they indicate traffic volume and that would misleading.