Influencing Direction- Conclusion.

Once I had designed my sign and had it made, all I had to do was to display it somewhere to see if it worked, too see if it would influence people's direction. Firstly with my cardboard designs I experimented and put them in various places to have an idea of what may work and what wouldn't. Once I had experimented for a while I got the real sign and started to use that instead.

I began to using the sign down sandwell valley which is local to my house. I thought that it would be a good starting point where people would see my sign. It turned out that when I took my sign and displayed it there were virtually no people around I couldn't create my work. I came up with the obvious conclusion that it needed to be somewhere which was busier and where more people would interact with it. I thought of a few ideas in the public where I could put it, for instance shop windows, road signs and car parks. Some of the ideas I had to scrap because either they were illegal but more seriously dangerous, for example covering up important road instructions. The idea I deemed to be the best was to place my sign near a car park pay meter, somewhere unavoidable for its users. This was a lot more successful in terms of how many people actually seen my sign, it was unmissable. I recorded my findings with photographs as I would be recording people secretly and taking photo's is quicker and more convienient than video. I was aware that I would probably be approached if I was caught video recording people. I took my photographs from my car which was parked the ideal position.


After about two minutes I first saw interaction with my sign. A man seemingly stared at my sign confused as to what it meant. About Five minutes later a woman approached the pay meter. She also stood and looked at the sign bemusingly, and another woman followed after with the same response. I had noticed their confusement but all three still continued to buy tickets. Prehaps because of the proposed fine for not having a ticket. I had interesting results but to my annoyance my experiment was cut short because of a ticket inspector. I had to quickly retrieve my sign as I did not want it to be conviscated. I was also aware of the possibility that what I was doing was illegal. A lot of people had passed through the car park but didn't get close enough to it to see. From the three people who viewed my sign I learnt that from an order point of view it did not work but it did have a physcological affect on its viewers and did slightly affect their movement, all be it by a few yards. It did not go ignored. I was hoping as a bonus it would affect their desision but it was always ambitious considering the fine they would have to deal with. Im happy with this experiment and I achieved what I wanted, I will be looking to extend this work futher in the future because I think it can become bigger.