Hasta La Ideas

While the Internet has given us a great deal of control over our media environments, that control exists largely in digital space. We can place stickers on our computers, change our desktop backgrounds and manipulate our Facebook profiles and web sites, but it’s still challenging for the average citizen to change physical space. Permits are required for legal street art in many cities, and signage and billboards remain a costly endeavor.

In a recent post on Design on GOOD, San Franciscan Christie George talked about a frustration she encountered in physical space:

When I first read about hateful anti-Muslim ads being put up in New York City, I was surprised and saddened. Seriously, who does that? Then when a crop of similar ads went up on San Francisco city buses, I was outraged. As a San Francisco resident, I felt like I had to do something about it, something more than sharing my rage and complaining on Facebook or Twitter.

To channel her frustration, George tapped into Louder, a platform she co-founded with Colin Mutchler. I wrote about civic crowdfunding recently with Citizinvestor, which is limited to city officials’ projects; think of Louder as a citizen’s version of crowdfunding, but made specifically for reclaiming advertising space. George reached out to her wide network with a Louder page and brought in a number of supporters (full disclosure: I contributed a small amount to the campaign).

Christie George with supporters at the site of the billboard in San Francisco’s SoMA district.

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