Lecture Comments
Design Development (workshop challenge)
Collaborations – Shape Newham
I have chosen to focus on the co creation project of Shape Newham. This project is an ongoing live project which brings together the community and a cohort of design professionals from architects to graphic designers and even local artists within the community. What makes this so special for me is the involvement of the community and how the design process developed around it is focussed on the delivery of these outcomes. Not only that but the cohort of designers involved is great to see.
From analysing this from the outside you could instantly see where collaboration had been so key. All the people involved wanted to be involved, down to the local council. The community was integral to the design decisions which have and continue to be made. Getting the voices of a local community is a powerful resource to design, create and implement impactful and emotive design (which can have effects on those living in the area, for good)
With this also it shows other council providers what can be done? Hopefully inspiring more projects to happen around the UK? Could we see Shape Trowbridge? (I would want to)
Design Process they use when working collaborative
- To get residents talking to each other and discussing local issues, to share ideas with neighbours and celebrate local resources!
- To get residents involved with the council’s decision making and improve transparency with the council’s decisions.
- To get residents shaping places by developing the projects with designers and making decisions about the projects.
Relationship of the collaborators
The core team working on the project consists of:
– AOC Architecture
– Carver Haggard
– Europa
– Social Broadcasts
– Local Works Studio
– Photographer: David Grandorge
+ The community within Newham and Newham Council.
“Newham is a great place to live and we want to make it better – people are at the heart of everything we do.”
Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, Mayor of Newham
The quote above gives us an indication of how everyone played a part in getting this project together.
Further Collaborations within the project…
What did Edward Crooks do?
Edward Crooks is a designer and artist working across the mediums of installation, interiors and illustration. He uses his design to tell new stories within existing places. For the Shape Newham project Edward produced a series of illustrations / projected works for the Newham Project. Brining in both his installation and illustrations into a public space.
Local Works Studio
Facilitating creative workshops within the community to share skills and knowledge about making processes. Creating artwork for their location.
Considering visually how each medium and designer worked together
Visual analysation of Shape Newham’ s design process when collaborating with the community and designers.
Editorial Piece
Research
Bath Art Depot
A creative collective created by residents of Bath, Somerset. They aim to nurture a vibrant, sustainable and fully inclusive arts community with a focus on positive change and wellbeing. BAD collaborate with artists and designers within the South West supporting and raising awareness of the development of a creative community hub within Bath. Bath has a huge creative sector across multiple disciplines. So how can a collective here bring together all these to create a hub where projects can be explored, ideas experimented and collaborations fostered.
This project is also working in support of ‘Weston Island’ within Bath. – A destination in Bath for a creative community. The project can be seen here
This is another project which is bringing together creatives from all areas to collaborate and communicate to a community (in this instance Bath) There is something powerful and exciting how a group of creatives can work together and have an impact.
Seeds for Growth – Greening Communities
About: disadvantaged people by working with local schools, community centres and housing estates in the heart of London’s bustling East End. Seeds for Growth is identifying unused areas of land on social housing estates for re wilding – with the projects being led by the residents of those areas. These projects aim to provide benefits to health and wellbeing.
This project is an on going scheme which is seeking new areas to have an impact. What links here to other projects is the collaboration between project leaders (this sometimes designers) and the local community, allowing the community to have there say within the location they live, what is exciting here is these residents can speak of their experiences, stories (potentially historic) to inform further projects beyond re wilding. What stories can be unlocked when discussing with local residents?
What i’m discovering across these projects is the potential for growth beyond what’s been implemented, which is only a positive. If I refer back to a number of projects I have undertaken on this MA, I can see how these can be pursued further across other parts of the UK. I think here there is a real opportunity for the boundaries of design to be pushed and collaborations to create projects which have impact.
Alan Kitching X English Heritage
Letterpress meets English Heritage? – Impact, colour and a British feeling? A perfect collaboration? With letterpress having a tactile / natural texture the collaboration with English Heritage brings joy to the viewer.
“The type I use is very, very old, like a hundred years old. It’s still in good condition because it’s made of very hard wood”
Approach – Alan Kitching takes a brief and starts work by sketching / playing with colours before committing too creating with wooden blocks. His approach and application (from the textures and imperfections) perfectly captures heritage across the UK and the brief which was ‘ by geography, climate, language and the coming together of different people and cultures over time.’
Did Alan Kitching get freedom on this project? How much was guided by English Heritage? Did English Heritage have materials for Alan to use?
Royal College of Art X V&A museum – Eye Magazine
A collaboration between communication students and the V&A Museum explored how digital media had not taken away the beauty of the traditional ‘poster’ They found that the poster still have the power to communicate to mass audiences.
“Phil Goss and Jamie Jenkinson’s collaboration raised the topic of how traditional mediums will integrate with digital technologies”
A collaboration which allowed the collaborators to have free rain on a topic – leading to explorative outcomes which explore how design can still be across both craft and digital means. Even where they can cross over and create designs which push the boundaries of design.
“Recent global protest and revolutionary events such as Occupy have shown the effectiveness of traditional, often amateur, printed communication” – An area I want to explore further around how printed, amateur communication can have such an impact on both a local and global level.
Can this way of working be successful and communicate ideas to an audience? How careful do I need to be when working with these types of mediums?
Weekly Reflections
James Shaw 