• New Texico Creative Cities Leadership Project
  • New Texico Creative Cities Leadership Project
  • New Texico Creative Cities Leadership Project
New Texico Creative Cities Leadership Project

Before the extreme drug violence in our sister city of Ciudad Juárez began, during the first half of 2007, in an effort to unite the two sister cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico even more, The New Texico Creative Cities Leadership Project created the El Paso–Ciudad Juarez Binational Arts & Cultural District Design Competition. This was spurred on by the Richard Florida Creativity Group, based in Washington D.C., who hired by the city of El Paso to find ways to tap into the El Paso–Juarez area’s creativity. This was to improve quality of life and stimulate economic growth as part of Florida’s Creative Cities Leadership Project. I assigned this competition as a “real world” class project to my Graphic Design 4: Typography class at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). There were 20 students in the class and I divided them up by their particular interests.

That is, five students worked on El Paso street models, maps, ideas, etc.; five students worked on Juárez street models, maps, ideas, etc.; five students came up with event ideas and designs (what these will look like); five students came up with urban design schemes (traffic patterns, street lights, new open park, green spaces, etc.).

Together, they came up with a proposal, entitled Solutions for Downtown El Paso and Northern Juarez by Students who Live in and Love this Region. Presented to the competition judges, the plan included collaborations on how to better serve and connect the two cities/countries with elements like unified signage and a single color palette. The assignment forced students to explore and visually define their transnational lives. The result was really exciting. As is the norm at UTEP, there were plenty of students from both Juárez and El Paso in the class and it was as if they had finally been asked to hash out ideas they had had their entire lives on how to make their immediate world more beautiful and more connected. In their inspired plans for the two sister cities, they converted abandoned store fronts into community centers and art galleries; they restored the glory of old 1950s movie theaters; they designed guayabera-shirted police uniforms based on the climate and Mexican culture. Street signs in the two cities would share a font and color system for unity based upon the era of historic downtown buildings, posters for music events were designed. The students’ presentation wound up taking second place in the competition, winning $2,500.