Lessons from the Green Map Icons Collaborative Design Process

by Wendy Brawer

600 cities, towns and villages in 55 countries have locally-led Green Map® projects. Each has a unique way of involving people of all ages in charting local nature, culture, social innovations and green living resources, and all use award-winning Green Map Icons to link their map to hundreds of others. This collaboratively developed universal language has made it easy for people of all backgrounds to explore new places, and get involved in sustainability near home or when traveling.

Green Map Icons are thought to be the first universal symbol system for maps in the world. Now appearing on hundreds of Green Maps, this globally designed iconography helps transfer successful concepts from place to place and overcomes cultural differences to encourage networking. It has become an important resource for change-makers, journalists and entrepreneurs, especially when merged with the Open Green Map, a new social mapping website that makes it easy to share, compare, update, illustrate and rate each green site on the map. Through its legend, users can also interact with each icon as it defines one of sustainability's many facets and pinpoints on-the-ground examples.

What could Clear Village participants learn from the collaborative design process that has shaped and evolved the Green Map Icons since 1995?

Take Time & Include Everyone

The first version of the Green Map Icons took a year to complete, starting in the Spring of 1995. I put the Green Map concept on the table and the O2 Global Network lent their diverse experience and perspectives to designing 100 icons that were used as an inventory tool as well as indicators that promote and link the community's eco-assets and liabilities. Sketches were e-mailed, faxed and mailed to our New York office by pioneer Green Mapmakers and designer Priscilla Prentice finalized the set. Considering the nascent network's diverse skills and resources, IT developer David Campbell suggested that the icons be distributed as a cross-platform font useable with any computer application, lowering barriers to participation. O2 members, including Niels Peter Flint in Copenhagen, Misako Yomosa in Kyoto and Jim Banks in Montreal created some of the very first Green Maps to use these icons.

With the first of our adaptable mapmaking tools ready to share and a website in progress, upon request, I started snailmailing disks or sending icon stickers to mapmakers without computers. The Green Map movement spread rapidly, moving beyond urban areas and into classrooms.

Encourage Adaptation and Improvement

Approximately 75 cities, towns and villages had Green Map projects underway by the time Version 2 of the Green Map Icons was released in 1999. With 60 Green Mapmakers and friends of the program from a dozen countries contributing to online discussions, we improved several existing icons. The global set also adopted several 'local icons' that were designed to fill gaps, including 'shaded boulevard' from Tel Aviv, 'favela/self-built home' from Buenos Aires, 'child-friendly site' contributed by young mapmakers in Canada. More about the history can be seen at http://GreenMap.org/icons.

We continually encourage local expression through the making of local icons and creative interpretations of the Green Map concept. Indeed, this week, the Repertory Dance Theatre in Salt Lake City Utah will debut a performance dedicated to "developing a more sustainable future by utilizing the Green Map System icons for self recognition, enlivened by the art of dance, to inspire and stimulate a dynamic understanding of 'place.'"

The icons bring liveliness to each Green Map and make patterns of positive change and woeful neglect apparent to even the most casual user. With a world of difference embodied in each icon, we encourage people to set the context for each locally and transparently, using the map's legend and narrative to clarify complexities and nuances.

Engage Many Types of Users

Our first Global Green Mapmakers Gathering brought 22 of us from 14 countries together in 2002 to develop many aspects of our work for a better common future (see http://bit.ly/10JEUi). Version 3 Icon Update slowly began, culminating five years later in a set of 170 Green Map Icons organized in a dozen categories. Hundreds of people took part and local discussions were shared via our online database. As we moved toward the final phase, we invited public input through our Icon Open Studio - both in our New York office and online - to assure this collaboration had the best possible results. Together, we expanded the set with icons about climate change, activism and justice, outdoor activities and more. We recognized and addressed multiple needs in Version 3 by creating a 'standard set' to make it easier for youth and community groups to participate, an icon pattern language to harmonize and codify design, even a expanded set of public works and landmark icons to make maps easier to navigate.

Promote Awareness and Action

Green Map Icons are at the heart of the movement, and signify much of importance. We continually consider how they are perceived, used and understood, and know there is much more we can do to extend awareness. We offer a plethora of resources in different formats, languages and mediums for group events, classrooms, exhibits and individual usage online. They appear in the centerfold of our new Impacts book (download free at http://GreenMap.org/impacts) and in many of the articles and books that highlight our work. Social networks extend our iconography to new audiences and our soon to be launched mobile Open Green Map website will include an 'explore by the icon' feature, helping people experience a full range of related sites in their area.

Design for Evolution

Designed as a living lexicon, the Green Map Icons continue to reflect our current understanding of community-based sustainability and how to communicate it. Updating the icons for the third time was our most inclusive approach to design to date, and helped us gain other outcomes both globally and locally. Now in our fourteenth year and reaching more than 50 countries, Green Map System intends to continue the evolution of our iconography by listening and observing carefully as we work to produce a more inclusive approach to charting sustainable living, cultural and socially significant sites. We invite everyone to take part in using, making and contributing to Green Map projects, moving today's reality toward vibrant future visions.