Design Out Crime Case Studies

Graphics, products, spaces and systems that tackle crime

Designers know that crime happens but only some have created products, services , spaces or graphic communications that address crime.

Stab proof school uniformFor some designers, there has been a business imperative to design out crime. They have responded to business and consumer demands for more security. The Best Bar None scheme rewards pubs and bars that have designed-in security, and potential customers feel safe while they drink. School uniforms that incorporate stab-proof materials are proving a sure seller to parents who are frightened about rising levels of violence encountered by their children.

Communication design

'Let's Keep Crime Down' posterGraphic designers too have been inspired to raise awareness of crime. Graphic communication campaigns can grab public attention and raise the profile of different sorts of crime. A coherent design strategy are often at the heart of this sort of work, with the Home Office commissioning RKCR/Y&R to create a campaign to raise awareness about theft and burglary and design agency Cresecent Lodge creating a poster of a bullet proof vest after a young man was shot dead yeards from their studio. Both designed posters that use graphic yellow and black colours, which remind people of police crime scene tape.

Aritistic inspiration

Khashayar Naimanan crockeryFor some designers, thinking about how to cut crime has inspired artistic concepts. Khashayar Naimanan has designed a range of expensive handpainted tableware called Incognito where it’s the underside that’s painted so criminals don't see the value.Khashayar Naimanan designed a box of nails that are actually made from precious metalsNaimanan has also come up with a way to hide precious metals. If they are shaped into nails they can be hidden in what appears to be a standard cardboard box of nails for DIY.  

Product design

Manila Mac designing out crimeFrom America, entrepreneurial designers Manila Mac took inspiration from Apple Macbook Air adverts which show the thin as air laptop being taken out of a manila document folder. Manila Mac has created a padded secure laptop case that looks just like a document folder, so whoever’s carrying it doesn’t appear to have anything more valuable than a sheaf of paper.

Read more about how designing out crime has proved an inspiration for designers outside the UK and about the products and services they've developed.

 

Making designs work 

For a design to be really effective at crimeproofing products, services or environments, designers need to think about how what they create might be affected by crime.

In the context of hot product theft, designers have been using two acronyms, CRAVED and VIVA, to help them understand why products are stealable.

CRAVED stands for: Concealable, Removable, Available, Valuable, Enjoyable and Disposable.

VIVA stands for: high Value, low Inertia, high Visibility and easy Access. 

If a product has any of these characteristics it is likely to be attractive to thieves.

There are also some techniques designers might use to generate ideas for how to crime-proof their products. Professor Ron Clarke identified 25 situational crime prevention techniques to kick-start thinking about how to design out crime, which include:

  • Making products or services more difficult for criminals to attack
  • Controlling access to spaces or products that might be a target for criminals
  • Increasing surveillance in an area prone to crime or around a product that’s desirable
  • Increasing people’s responsibility for their own products or spaces
  • Reducing anonymity of a criminal who attacks
  • Disguising or concealing valuables
  • Denying criminals the benefits of stealing.

As orange school projectors show, designs don’t have to be complicated to cut crime.

On the right hand side of this page you will see a set of inspirational case studies which show how designers have taken innovative approaches to cutting crime.

The Design Council is involved in a project to encourage designers and makers of hot products like mobile phones, MP3 players and bikes to design in security. Soon we hope to have developed more case studies of projects currently underway where design tools and techniques are being used to tackle crime.

Find out more
The Design Council is involved in a project to Design Out Crime. Read all about it

In depth case studies

Read more about:

MADE youth shelter in ColeshillMADE youth shelters
Young people in the Midlands worked with designers to create spaces they could spend time in which reduced complaints about anti-social behaviour

Anti-theft lunch bags designed out crimeDesign out crime abroad
Designers in the USA, Australia, Africa and Europe have all taken different approaches to designing out crime from anything from your packed lunch to your electoral vote

A new playground at Villiers High school designed out crimeVilliers High School
Students at this London secondary school commissioned a designer to help them make their playground fit for teenagers and reduce levels of aggression at lunchtime

RKCR/Y&R designed posters to raise awareness of crimes like theft and burglaryGraphic designs against crime
Graphic communication campaigns can grab public attention and raise the profile of different sorts of crime. Find out how a coherent design strategy can help raise awareness of crime 

 

Bikeoff
How bicycle stands are designed to make it harder for thieves to steal bikes but also to encourage cycle usage

Orange projectors
How changing the colour of projectors made them more secure for schools

Birmingham Heartlands Hospital 
How making changes to the signage and wayfinding cut crime and violence levels in the A&E department of one

Immobilise
How a system for registering stolen goods is designed to reach millions of people online, but could learn lessons from another market

Biometrics
How security at the touch of a fingerprint has been designed in to hundreds of electronic products to make it quicker to identify legitimate users

Anti-theft number plates
How they have been designed to break if a thief tries to steal them

 

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Evidence - A collection of designing out crime case studies

This collection of Evidence contains even more case studies about how crime has been designed out of products, systems and services

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