DESIGN / ART DIRECTION / WRITING
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Flushing Volt Station

An electric-vehicle charging station in the heart of Flushing’s Chinatown, built on Taoist philosophy. Also serves Sichuan street food.

Gold Winner of the Indigo Design Award.

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New York City Needs an Electric Vehicle Charging Station.

As of this writing, there are no formal electric vehicle charging stations open to the public in New York City. Most folks just do it at home, if they’re lucky enough to get parking.

Clearly, owning a gas-powered car in the city is much more convenient than electric. But what if there were road-side charging stations, the way we are accustomed to seeing gas stations?

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How could we do it differently? What could an electric vehicle charging station look like in New York City? How could it give back to the neighborhood it’s built in, rather than just take prime real estate?

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Let’s Build One in Flushing, Queens.

 

BUT Why Flushing?

 
 

reason 1 →
It’s at the nexus of
the universe.

Downtown Flushing is easily accesible for all residents of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, via the Long Island Expressway, the Van Wyck Expressway, the Grand Central Parkway, the Cross Island Parkway, and major local roads such as Northern Boulevard.

It’s also close to the Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges, making it accessible to the Bronx, Connecticut, and beyond.

 
 
 
 
 
 
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← Reason 2
It’s one of the most unique places in America.

Flushing is characterized by a constantly growing community of East Asian immigrants. Roughly two-thirds of the neighborhood’s residents are foreign-born. Becuase if this, Flushing may appear very foreign to assimilated Americans from other cultural backgrounds. By drawing electric vehicles owners into this foreign-seeming neighborhood, we are able to heighten the exoticness and excitement of the electric vehicle ownership experience. 

 
 
 
 

reason 3 ↓
it’ll help make new york and the country a better place.

The greater mission of the Volt Station is to create an access point for assimilated Americans to experience the beauty of Chinese and Taiwanese culture thriving in Flushing. It also allows new East Asian arrivals to open up their community and lives to assimilated Americans, easing their transition into their new home, and aiding them in their journey towards achieving the American Dream.

 
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Location

 
 

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The perfect location for an electric vehicle charging station in Flushing is at the intersection of Main and Kissena, right in the heart of the busiest section of Chinatown. This will position the station as a focal point in the neighborhood, and provide for an interesting viewpoint for Long Island Railroad passengers as they pass by on the nearby elevated tracks.

 
 
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 The Structure

 
 
 

The architecture of the Volt Station has a futuristic look to heighten the exotic nature of electric vehicles. The structure is also designed to be clean and simple, in stark contrast to the busy, overpopulated and polluted backdrop of Flushing.

This oasis of clean design in a hectic neighborhood is inspired on the Taoist philosophy of the Yin and the Yang, a balance of sorts that serves both sides. This Taoist bent is an element that will permeate every aspect of the Flushing Volt Station brand. 

 

↓ View from Kissena Boulevard

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↓ View from Main Street

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↓ bird’s eye

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Model

 
 

Below is a small but exact representation of the Flushing Volt Station, constructed by me and complete with lighting, to further illustrate the vision.

 
 
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MEET
THE Brand

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Logo for the Volt Station branding is meant to be futuristic but approachable. The typography has an almost 70’s vibe, pulling inspiration from paperback sci-fi and using a sense of nostalgia to soften the blow of the forward-thinking aesthetic of the brand.

 
 
 
 
 
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Street Food

The glass kiosk (shown in red, above) at the front of the station operates as a take-out counter for spicy, mouth-numbing Sichuan street food.

The branding on the menu, chopsticks, food containers and matchbooks combine feelings of futurist intrigue with tasty morsels of Taoist philosophy and symbology. 

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These photos are best viewed on a laptop or desktop.

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User Experience

 
 
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The user experience of the Flushing Volt Station is guided by our app.

 

Primary
Function

To keep the user updated on the status of the vehicle charge, as it can take up to an hour.

secondary
Function

To keep the user entertained while the car charges, with a focus on getting the user to interact with the surrounding community.

This works as an extension of our brand's values of exploration and integration. 

 
 

User Journey

 
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App Loading Screen

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Waiting for the user to plug in their car

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Car is now plugged in.

App displays charge percentage, and remaining time. User is presented price, and amount of Volt Yuan earned (more on this later) before deciding to start charge.

 
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The user has selected to start the charge.

Let the games begin!

 

in this example, The User has

 
 

53 Minutes to kill

 
 

while waiting for their car to be charged.

 

Let’s kill some time.

 
 
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←YOUR CHARGE

Once the user begins the charge, they are brought to this landing page.

This “Your Charge” page shows the status of the charge-up, as well as providing the base level of entertainment that the app has to offer: Taoist quotes which the user can thumb through.

At the bottom of the screen is a navigation bar that allows the user to select other ways to kill time while waiting on their charge-up.

You can see that there is a +800 notification on one of the nav icons.

 
 
 
 
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←YOUR WALLET

Clicking on the nav icon with the +800 notification brings the user to the Wallet page.

The notification is to announce that 800 “Volt Yuan” have been added to the user’s wallet. Essentially these are reward points for purchasing a charge-up.

The Volt Yuan can be used to purchase coupons for items and experiences, redeemable in local participating businesses.

At the top of the screen is large callout to show the user’s balance, and below is a grid showing coupons that the user has purchased and can be redeemed.

 
 
 
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←Coupon

The user can tap on any icon in their wallet to bring up the QR code coupon for that item.

At that point, they head to the address to redeem the coupon.

This gets the user out in the neighborhood, exploring and patronizing local businesses they would normally never have a reason to go to.

 
 
 
 

←market

Tapping the nav icon on the far right, the user can go to the “Market” and choose how to spend Volt Yuan they’ve saved up.

Items are designed to be redeemable at businesses within walking distance of the Flushing Volt Station.

 
 
 
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Clicking on an item in the Market brings up a short description and Confirm screen.

Once the item is purchased, it appears in the Wallet.

This reward-currency system provides traffic for local business in Flushing, and gives the user real incentive to further explore the neighborhood. 

 
 

The deepest level of entertainment and immersion is in the “tao hunt” experience.

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Clicking on the third nav icon brings up the Tao Hunt “Begin” page. Brief instructions are given, overlayed above a map.

 
 

Once the user begins the AR experience, they can toggle between “Map” and “Clue” mode. The Map shows the general location of the Yin Yang using a dotted outline.

 
 

Toggling to Clue mode, the user reads a Taoist-inspired clue to give them a better idea where the QR code might be. In this case the Yin Yang is in front of Red Top Mountain Restaurant.

 
 
 
 

If the user can find the Yin Yang, they scan the QR code beside it and are rewarded with a large sum of Volt Yuan.

 
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