Assignment: Digital photography project
Category: Graphic design, Photography, Photoshop
Timeframe: Spring 2015 (Grade 11)

Revealing streets of Toronto through a different lens

Streetscapes Parlance

The ask

For a Communications Technology culminating project we were given free reign to do anything, as long as it included demonstrated our learning and abilities using a digital camera and Photoshop.

The deliverables

  • Digital photo manipulation
  • Design 
  • Mockup production

”You know my name, not my story.

Jonathan Anthony Burkett

Drivers

Between the Main Streets, Church Streets, Brock Drives and Wellington Avenues that scattered across our country, there are many with simple, every-day or natural namesakes. I’ve often wondered at their origins, especially when “Riverside” and “Lakeview” have no water nearby. I decided to combine this digital photography project with an exploration of some of these namesakes in my region.

Phase 1

Collecting the pieces

To bring a focus to these names, I shot the streets as well as the named objects, and merge this imagery. Since there was no Magnolia tree on Magnolia Avenue, the assignment became something of a discovery and scavenger hunt. Once the images were captured, I worked with Photoshop to create 27 street-name inspired abstract montages, playing with positive and negative shapes and contrast. 

Phase 2

Note cards

To give the project a more concrete form, I created a set of note cards, and named the collection “Streetscapes Parlance.” On the back of each card, a map showed the location of the street depicted in the abstract image, along with a detail of the street sign itself to provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse. The final touch was to print the collection and package it in a presentation tin that included image thumbnails and the following teaser description of the collection:

“The streets of Toronto come to life in a completely new way with STREETSCAPES PARLANCE. When viewed through the lens of the language of names and the juxtaposition of the streetscape and namesake, the streets of Toronto become visual gems. Discover Rhinestone Drive, Paisley Avenue, Lionhead Trail and two dozen others in this innovative notecard collection.”