In my final year at Glasgow School of Art, I more or less abandoned graphics to pursue some activities inspired by pranksters. In this particular action, I used the Glasgow Underground tube train as the setting, specifically as a reaction to the atmosphere of closed-offness there, the isolation of the passengers from one another. I wanted to see if I could get people to engage with me - and each other - on a more human, if slightly silly, level. To do this I hijacked one of the ads hanging overhead, designing my own: an ad for The Lucky Guy, a made-up person (a cheesily posed photo of myself with a message endorsed by the transport authority, though they didn't know) who dispensed lucky mystery prizes (lucky bags and plastic guns) to anyone who would say hello. At first there was an uncomfortable silence. My friend videoed it all discreetly from inside a noisy plastic bag, rendering any sound inaudible. Then people gradually began to say hello, and over the next hour I struck up conversation with several bemused and happy people; one old man knew my dad from back in the early 60s on the trams. Everyone received lucky bags. It was, at least for myself, a good afternoon's work.
