Yours, mine, ours

Monash University XYX Lab is engaged in a multi-discipline research project between Monash, LaTrobe and RMIT Universities, focused on community safety on public transport. The challenge was to create a project identity that didn’t privilege any one university; drew on the community engagement methodologies of the researchers; and celebrated diversity and inclusion as a key underpinning of the project’s ambition. XYX Lab’s successful selection in the 2019 Art Tram Project, set the direction for the identity. “Yours, mine, ours” is a geometric-typographic design, the colours of which are drawn from the familiar flags that champion inclusion (the Indigenous and LGTBIQ+).

The pattern and colour draws attention to the message as the tram traverses the streets of Melbourne. The colours reflect the richness of social and cultural diversity, but like us, each is stronger because of its relationship to its neighbour. Once applied to the tram, the typography was extended to other applications; namely an alphabet and identity for a major community and stakeholder co-design workshop. An entire alphabet was devised as a series of stickers that enabled workshop participants to create their own messages that could speculatively be located inside public transport or the environments that it passes through.

‘Yours, mine, ours’ is a public messaging system, made possible by the daily movements of the Tram. The colour drenched tram jolts Melbourne’s citizenry into realising their obligations towards inclusion; and acknowledges that the right to travel, play and work in the city is not a privilege of a few, but the right of every resident. The subsequent manifestations of the typography as a co-design tool permits the researchers to gather community ideas for safety and inclusion on Melbourne’s transport. These are being worked into recommendations, that genuinely bring users’ ideas into the operation of Melbourne’s public transport system.

The tram’s typography and subsequent applications is a call to action for Melbourne’s residents, but it also serves to reassure those who traverse the city on its public transport network. It is their right to travel without anxiety, secure in the knowledge that a shared system is also a safe and inclusive one. As contemporary cities grow larger and more complex, there is a danger of them becoming dehumanised spaces in which people function in insular, selfish and careless ways. Our environment, our public safety, and our respect for colour, gender and diversity must be maintained and nurtured; and jolted into people’s consciousness whenever possible. We cannot assume inclusion and respect will exist if no effort is made to nurture it. ‘Yours, mine, ours’ is a reminder that our city is a shared space, and must be a safe space. Everyone from the most empowered to the most vulnerable must feel confident in their public engagement with the city. This project intersects communication design and academic research with community concerns and transport user experience. It is a unique blend of knowledge that will result in unique solutions that will impact dramatically on the future of Melbourne transport.