Week 11 - Society and purpose
Design and Develop
Weekly Learning Objectives
You will be working towards achieving the following learning outcomes detailed in the Assignments tab:
LO2: Contextualise – appraise the social, political and historical contexts in which design practice operates.
LO3: Analyse – evaluate research findings and use sound judgment informed by critical debate at the forefront of the academic discipline.
LO4: Distil – position a creative strategic insight that has been distilled and refined through an informed investigation.
LO6: Make – select and utilise relevant tools, skills and technologies in the delivery, iteration and sustainable production of an outcome.
LO7: Collaborate – demonstrate inclusive and empathetic strategies to plan and execute a project across distributed collaborative situations.
LO8: Design – realise a final solution that evidences its strategic journey and clear relationship between form and function.
Studio Practice research - Last visit to the Repair café
The final week happened to coincide with the 2nd Saturday of the month when the East Grinstead, Repair Cafe meet, so I was able to finalise answers to the last questions and interview Kathryn for the last time. I also took my zine mock-up to show them crucial feedback from the mini focus group of volunteers. (I also took some trousers that needed a hem taken up and a coat with a seam hole that needed fixing.)
Interview questions:
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We have 14 regular volunteers all with various skillsets.
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a. Community (within as well) 3.
b. Raise awareness about sustainability 2.
c. To raise funds N 5. (Although is needed to operate).
d. Workshops - To pass on skillset 4.
e. Keep goods out of landfill 1.
f. Something else - please state what
(It might be all of these or a mixture)
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repaircage.org
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Item description
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Advertsing - we have trouble getting people to understand we’re here.
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Item description
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I have researching the Repair Cafe and their logo. Not many repair cafes use it, prefering to create there own.
I personally think the colour scheme on the 'Repair Cafe International' is questionable?!, Im not sure about the purple and orange - maybe it doesn’t translate well online and in different variables.
I know you have created your own version. Is there a reason for this? - You don’t have to answer this, it is purely to help work out why everyone does their own thing!
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Week 11: Lecture
The aim of this lecture material is to:
Demonstrate how collaborating with experts outside of the design industry can offer fresh perspectives to help solve a project relating to location.
Analyse case study examples where campaigns communicate with local audiences.
Analyse how intercultural learning can be deployed to solve a problem.
Online Interview with George Lee & Jonathan Collie
This weeks material from a website rather than an online video.
Background
Georgina Lee and Jonathan Collie are co-founders of The Age of No Retirement, a social-enterprise and intergenerational community project The Common Room.
This project was initially developed from George Lee, with a background in design strategy and communication, and Jonathan with expertise in health and service design, combined with a team of researchers, designers and innovators to tackle issues related to the ageing population, ageism in society and the potential of intergenerational communities.
They work with public citizens, the third sector and private organisations, and their work uses design-research methods and processes of engagement to collectively innovate solutions to engage and address the issues of an ageing population why this defines us and our abilities in employment.
George Lee: “Well, our central aim is to create an ageless world. A world where our age — whether we are 8 or 108 — doesn't define us or the opportunities available to us.”
This initially began as a government-funded social research project with the starting hypothesis that:
“Our urban communities are broken. They are more like groups of strangers, than the intergenerational, interdependent communities. We must reverse this trend, and draw people of all ages inwards and reconnect them in inspiring ways to help each person achieve greater things in life, and become a more valued and participating citizen of the world.”
The project was funded for the first 6 months, and from this they shaped the process following the Design Councils double diamond method and delivered a blueprint for a service that would address their initial question.
By sticking to these 4 stage principles they able to be rigorous in the process of testing and prototyping ideas. But they introduced other methods and approaches as well.
George discusses who she is committed to human centred design and uses a range of methods including -
interviews, walking tours, observations, creative workshops, meditations, storytelling, surveys and language analysis
She also says by engaging with real people, you develop wonderful insight and how essential it is to keep on asking why until you get the real essence of what people are feeling and needing.
She emphasises how important it is to LISTEN and how essential it is to find something new and necessary.
By being engaged with a variety of people from all sectors, all ages, and all diversities, only then can you create a uniquely ageless view on life.
Campaign Posters by The Age of No Retirement
Advice from Jonathan Collie for our project
Jonathan give advice on how one of the biggest challenges relates to the narrow perspectives and stereotypical views of the people and organisations who hold the purse strings, who are reluctant to fully embrace the freedom and openness of the design process.
These are normally not those from a design background, and lack the confidence or ability to envisage the process, which often limits the project team’s ability to really explore the extremes of their imagination. This can result in predictable solutions. In order to get past this, it is important to build trust in relationships with your financial backers. Then hopefully you can embrace your design freedom! Educate the process of the double diamond and get someone on board who believes in the potential power of design, the double diamond design process, and who has used it successfully before.
George emphasises how important it is to talk to a variety of different people for mixed opinions.
George Lee: “Be brave. Talk to people. Listen to people. Lots of different people. Be prepared to go with the journey.”
Reflection
I think this has emphasised how important it is to get a variety of opinions, not just from one source. Consider all different demographics for your answers, not just your target audience.
Read | Watch | Listen - Module resource list
E, Manzini., (2015) ‘Part 3: Making Things Happen’, in Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation pages 119 – 202
Points from the paragraphs - these are the notes that I made that I thought would be relevant to my project
Creating stories involves a specific narrative structure, style, and set of characters that include a sense of completeness. Storytelling is the ability to communicate complex ideas and values of importance to a targeted audience. Sometimes just telling people isn’t enough, you have to take them on a journey… the example given is Urban Storytelling, Milan.
Urban Storytelling, Milan
Imagine Milan is an educational and research programme from 2009 by the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano by Imagis research group. It aimed to experiment the use of urban transformation through visual communication by creating 20 short videos related to 20 city zones using the “the identity of an area is built from the personal and collective histories of its inhabitants, a set of polyphonic images, faces, voices, gestures and characters.
These videos are instruments for dialogue among citizens, decision-makers involved in the design of infrastructure, and, above all, promoters of a new idea of Milan as a sustainable city. Different audiovisual formats and genres have been produced to achieve different communication goals: in particular, brief documentaries using footage, iconographic repertories, and interviews to present people’s individual stories and record transformations in progress and the good practices already being applied and video scenarios for envisioning how the city would look if certain behaviours were to be supported and become standard practice.
Since 2009 the Imagine Milan programme has been evolving, and it is now experimenting with integrating transmedia narratives and social media advocacy.