This project was created as a full series of designs including shirts, print materials, banners, physical magnetic badges, and social media posts.
The "Great City Race" program challenged members to complete a virtual "race" along the distance from the Edwardsville YMCA to five of the most common "home" destinations for local residents.
The Great City Race was conceptualized as a program the YMCA planned to hold annually. As such, the materials for this challenge were carefully tailored in design and production style/materials to be as multipurpose and reusable as possible, with the exception of the participants' completion shirts.
Members tracked their progress on one of two floor-to-ceiling banners, using magnetic badges placed along the route of their choice. At the conclusion of the program, members received a shirt with the city closest to the distance they completed highlighted from those listed on the back of the shirt.
The designs for the Great City Race shirt and IL Tracking Banner were created using the combination of multiple maps of the state of Illinois. This included digitally manipulated nighttime satellite imagery of Illinois and travel density maps, combined to create a high contrast, black and white image of the highest travelled routes to GCR destinations and population centers.
Tracking maps were originally designed at-scale to print as standard door-sized vinyl stand banners. Participants were encouraged to attach and move their badges along their chosen path as they covered distance.
