trans - IED Madrid

project description
biography
Ubi-KT is a set of guides for immigrants of different nationalities that are looking
for a better quality of life in Madrid. When they arrive to a different country, they lack
comfort, family, friends, memories, culture, traditions: in other words, they are missing
the welcoming atmosphere that a person finds in the living room of their own
home. The purpose of this guide is for newcomers to be able to situate themselves
easily and find everything that they are looking for in order to be able to move
about and finally feel comfortable, as if at last they were in the “living room” that
they are looking so hard to find. Nowadays, immigration is an issue that concerns
many European countries. Spain is the tenth country on the planet with the most
immigrants in absolute numbers. Most of these immigrants are Moroccan, followed
by Romanians, Ecuadorians, Colombians and many other nationalities. The prototype
guide is made for Latin American immigrants, who are primarily Ecuadorian
and Colombian. It is divided into three categories, each one of which is associated
with a kind of need that immigrants may have when they arrive to Spain: employment,
housing, health… In these categories, users will find telephone numbers,
web pages, addresses, and so on and a map, which are all necessary to be able
to move around and find what one is looking for. In addition, the guide includes a
dictionary that varies according to the place of origin of immigrants, a note pad and
postcards to send to their families.
The binding of this guide is designed so that a rubber band holds together the cover
and all of its pages. This allows users to play with the content and enables them to
organise it in the way they see fit, or they can simply take out what they need as
they need it. Moreover, it also makes it possible to easily add possible updates and
thus create a kind of collection.These guides will be distributed as best as possible
so that immigrants can acquire them; therefore, they will be sold at places in Madrid
frequented by immigrants, such as phone centres, the city hall, the airport, immigrant
support centres, Immigrant Participation and Integration Centres, NGOs, etc.
Furthermore, phone centres will be offered a service consisting of the re-designing
of the branding of their spaces (which are generally unwelcoming) in exchange for
distributing the guide with no added cost. Ubi-KT is a project that addresses the
disorientation and confusion endured by immigrants when they arrive to Madrid. The
guide is a great help in enhancing their quality of life and improving their adaptation
and co-existence with the city’s other inhabitants. This way, they will be able to have a
“living room” where they feel welcome.
Maria José Riestra was
born in Mexico City
in 1984. In 2006, she
obtained her degree in
Graphic Design with an
emphasis on packaging
from Anáhuac University.
During her studies, she
did a semester academic
exchange programme at
IED Madrid.
In Mexico City, she
worked for Rotodiseño
y Color, and later she
collaborated with ECCHO
Productora as the head
of graphic design. Maria
José has also worked as
a freelance designer on
projects for companies
such as 3M, MAS GOLF,
American Hardwood Export
Council (AHEC), FUJI,
GAQSA and PEUGEOT, among
others.