The 100 Day Project

Ever since taking part in a few of Laura's colour challenges (you can see mine at #LBweekofcolour) and following along with Tasha's famous #100DaysofTriangles last year, I'd been keen to test myself a little more with a longer term creative challenge. Still, the 100 Day Project was quite a daunting prospect to commit to. The pressure of having to figure out a theme to post, of looking for an image every day to post, seemed a little too much - but I thought I'd give it a go, even if I didn't end up finishing. I decided on a rather unglamourous topic: London's public transport system. It wasn't an obvious choice, but after noticing a few interesting details on my commutes I thought it might be an interesting way to explore an environment which so many of us use but completely overlook in terms of design.

Within a week or so of starting the project, I ended up taking on a new contract, upping my working week to four days on top of my Master's degree, so things got a little more hectic! With a little encouragement (thank you Tasha!) and a couple of days where I had to catch up (I was surprisingly reliable at taking photos every day, but less so at remembering to post) I managed to complete the full one hundred days on time, with what I think is a pretty creative set of images, which I've rearranged into rainbow order for this recap... because why not.

Prior to starting the project, I had fallen in with a strict grey colour scheme on my Instagram. Much like in my wardrobe, my natural inclination is to avoid colour. I can never deal with coordinating colours, and on my Instagram when colours didn't sit well together I often ended up deleting or not posting images which were otherwise solid, but didn't quite fit. Just before the project started, I broke my grey streak with a shot of bright yellow bananas - and the change from grey was swiftly noticed! I lasted a few hours before deleting it and sinking back into the comfort of grey. 

Embarking on the 100 Day Project, I knew that maintaining a no-colour rule wasn't going to be easy - perhaps impossible. In fact, I swiftly realised that it would negatively limit my project and probably make it a lot less fun. I was forced to let go of (a bit of) my anxiety towards colour... with a compromise of one colour image per one grey, white or black image. It ended up working out perfectly: my final image (a black and white tiled 'OUT' with an arrow) wasn't planned, and I would have been a little sad if Day 100 had ended up being a colour day!

I'm really pleased that I stuck with the project, even if some days it was a bit of a struggle. I saw my commute in a totally new way, looking for little details which likely get overlooked by the thousands of people who hurry past them every day. I also learnt a lot about the design history of the transport system, bolstered by my first visits to the London Transport Museum for their exhibition Designology and their first Friday Late (where I made my YouTube debut in Tasha's vlog!) I also attended the Acton Depot Open Weekend, which I'll be sad to miss this September - I highly recommend it if you're a design fan.

Congratulations to everyone who finished the project, and everybody who gave it a shot!

Check out my project #100DaysofPublicTransport on Instagram & all of the many other great projects at #The100DayProject.