One of the things that inspires me is design being used to improve a situation, rather than sell — just don’t ask me why I work for one of the world’s largest advertising agencies! IDEO has always served as a nice example, and I’ve linked to a few of them previously. The Design Council has a number of case studies on topics such as how design is being used to fight crime, reduce energy consumption and create better public services.

The use of a colour can be used to communicate a mood and therefor improve a situation. For example the theory of using Baked Miller Pink in gaol (jail) to calm inmates. However, like other elements of design, the meaning can shift from person to person depending on personal experience (see the example on the Baked Miller Pink page) and wider factors such as culture. That doesn’t mean you can’t use colour to convey meaning but simply relying on colour may not work as well as using a combination of visual codes. That is unless there is a particularly strong connection or instead of relying on a perceived meaning the colour establishes it’s own. The orange initiative uses orange to identify projectors as being property of the education system and therefor help reduce theft, rather than relying on colour perception.

Using design to fight crime is an interesting topic. Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London has established a Design Against Crime research centre to address issues such as criminal activities and developing products and services that aid in crime prevention. They also have another resource called in the bag to help prevent street crime.

The Design Council has a page listing all of the case studies concerned with crime prevention. The UK home office employed design to create a campaign warning people in high theft areas and advising how they could reduce their chance of being a victim — the yellow and black are instantly recognisable as a sign of danger.

Bike theft is another massive problem in London. If you own a bike in London you should watch this film by the DAC research centre. An interesting project called bike off addresses the need to redesign bike stands so users can secure their bikes easier.