Lecture Comments
Podcast – Collaboration around the globe (Alec Dudson X Hato)
Pushing the boundaries of what graphic design can be.
Design tools to help other individuals be more creative, or think in a different way
Being able to work in new areas (geographically) to help inform practice and decisions. Be inspired by what’s around you and what’s going on.
HATO Student Society
Collaboration between educational and Creativity. I love this idea from HATO. Opening up a place for creatives to explore the world of RISO printing. Allowing students to express an interest in a new tool which could aid further collaboration. This also gives students an opportunity to engage and meet potential future collaborators or even form new practices.
How can more initiatives be set up to aid collaboration and bridge the gap between education and a career within design?
Design Development
Initial Ideas on collaborative projects.
Live ideas wall which is location specific for example ‘Wiltshire’ or ‘Somerset’ projects ‘open’ or ‘live’ are posted for collaborations. These can be speculative or ‘live’ projects within the community.
Community Workshops – Workshops set up in locations to aid collaboration between designers and the community. This could be in response to a local issue or statement that wants to be explored for example the re wilding of road verges or leaving areas to re wild within the local park. Reference here to the Shape Newham Project.
Community online collab tool (reference to Open Call, Patrick Thomas)
Bridging the gap between education and work – How can collaboration support students in moving in to the creative sector?
Community based design studios
‘Sprint’ Collaboration projects
Music X Design – How can a sound artists / musician collaborate with a designer to create a unique experience / highlight a problem within the community.
Exploring the gap between education and career
Connecting with local communities
Focusing in on collaboration on a local basis
(a town or city)
How can we create collaborative ways of working to spark ideas and work on ‘live’ or speculative projects (projects communities want to see happen for example re wilding in areas) How can a solution foster collaboration and creativity for those who aren’t ‘creatives’ Can a solution connect communities with local designers and makers to spark change? Reference the work of Shape Newham.
I’ve been talking to a local group in my old town who are called Trowbridge Eco. They set up and run a number of eco events and workshops to help raise awareness within the town and have impact (small but mighty) they run projects such as re wilding, growing workshops and pop up events which engage and teach people.
How can a platform like this potentially get them involved and connected with a wider set of creatives to help support projects.
Collaboration with community on a local, national and global level
Putting into visuals how a collaborative platform could reach a wider community through connecting communities. This idea follows and expands on the idea above.
Idea cycle / model – Communities X Creative
Looking at how my idea of community X Design can work and draw upon the different things happening within a given location. Should be locality specific for example, Wiltshire or Nation wide? Does nation wide loose the tightness of a community? or does it open up for more exciting and diverse design projects?
What is combination?
A space for communities (location based, villages, towns, cities) and Creative practitioners (Graphic Designers, Architects, Urban Designers, Artists) to share and generate ideas, develop solutions and collaborate.
What does it do?
Combination brings together creative ideas, community projects and creative practitioners to foster collaboration on locality based speculative or live projects and initiatives. The platform aims to discover and highlight projects within locations to highlight, have impact, provide resources and uncover stories.
What does it look like?
We want the platform to be accessible for all to contribute to. Current thinking is it will be an app which will allow for photos / images / words to be uploaded directly to ‘spaces’ This will be supported by social channels to enhance collaboration. The solution will have ‘ideate’ areas which will be areas to share ideas, projects (speculative or live)
What types of projects?
The platform will be aimed at looking at what’s going on within locations for example ‘Westbury’ or more widely ‘Bristol’ it will also offer up space for projects creative practitioners could be involved with / have self initiated likewise within the community for example ‘Trowbridge Eco’
Project ‘Combination‘
Project Pitch ‘Draft’ stages
Re thinking / re direction of focus.
After a 1-1 with Frauke and some reflection I realised that I needed to focus back on what it was I was trying to do. ‘Combination’ is an idea which needs to be fed into my practice. With this in mind I aim to focus this idea around my previous exploration of ‘Trowbridge pond’ and how a series of events or ‘weekend pop up festivals’ can help aid collaboration between the community and creative practitioners.
‘Combination’ was trying to be more than it needed to be and was to broad. Brining it back to a project which is related to my developing practice only feels right. With this I am going to revisit my pitch and re design it to focus on the event / mini festival tool to aid collaboration.
These events will be hands on, research led and there to uncover the ideas and creative vision of the community. The very people who see, walk past, use and interact with the pond daily.
I want to keep the idea of combination as I see this is the wider development of the project engagement and maybe looks at my practice as a whole (a model for my practice?)
Updated pitch / thoughts
What is re imagine – re-imagine is a series of pop up interactive events re imaging and re discovering Trowbridge Park Pond. The series of events aim to put a spotlight on the pond and capture the imagination of the community about the importance and diversity of the area.This will be achieved by collaboration between the community and local creative practitioners.
How? – The event will host a series of workshops and talks to discover the communities ideas and re imagination of the pond. These workshops will be captured and documented in creative ways via digital platforms to archive the journey of the collaborative and live project.
Why? – Trowbridge pond is an area which is the focal point of a town’s park but it’s been left? Re-imagine aims to put a spotlight on the pond and re imagine the creative possibilities of the pond. How can we as a community support the re wilding of the pond? What if new signs and maps were installed to highlights its location? What if new signs tell us about the plant species present in the area? Re imagine aims to showcase these situations through a series of interactive events which will be give the community the opportunity to share their ideas and creative imagination.
Pitch on tool for collaboration
As mentioned above I revised my tool for collaboration and have brought it back to my developing practice. This now focuses on evolving a small pop up festival to connect, collaborate and re imagine a local pond (which has been initially explored in the previous module)
This tool is an initial tool to aid collaboration for a future digital tool (an archive of data collected from the pop up festival) which will become a central place for collaboration, connection and story telling. (documenting)
This future tool informed by the initial tool (festival) will sit as a web page, working in tandem with social media to document, connect and collaborate projects initiated from the pop up festivals in relation to the pond and it’s development and re imagination.
Final pitch
Research
“It was about a community of people, be it your neighborhoods, your building, your family, your tribe, saying, “We can design for ourselves, we just need you to articulate design concepts in a way that we can use them.”
Sloan Leo
Remote collaboration tool which invites users from all backgrounds to participate in predetermined responses. (Text and Images) This form of collaboration connects creators together and potentially fosters future collaborations. An ongoing ‘live’ tool which almost has no boundaries in a way? Letting the individual express their creativity. This leading to a wide range of outcomes from a single predetermined task.
Not all collaborations need to happen in person, this allowing for a greater flexibility in what can be created? You can collaborate and see the work of anyone. This is a great way to learn, develop and share skills.
Could a similar way of collaborating been applied to a community within a location? Maybe not just creatives but anyone? A free open to explore collab tool? with the ability for it to allow those with no easy access to a computer the opportunity to respond and have their say?
Trowbridge Environmental Community
Trowbridge Eco aims to raise awareness locally (within the town) around environmental issues. This is ver localised but what I love is the drive and impact they are having. They are a small team who rely on volunteers but they are making a difference already locally, this parking others to be inspired.
With a platform to share this how can initiatives like this connect with designers and creatives locally to support them on their journey. Or even find projects to be involved with. For example I self initiated a project around Trowbridge Pond and this could go on this platform as a ‘live’ project looking for support and contributions. This potentially influencing the outcome and development of that project ( for the good)
Daisie App
An app which aims to “push forward together, with a shared vision” and bring bring creatives together regardless of their location or background. This app is fostering collaboration in a new way. Enhancing how us creatives work together?
This approach can be looked at in terms of what I am currently looking at in terms of getting communities involved with projects. This platform however for me is slightly to ‘commercial’ I want collaborators and communities to feel they can be involved and to have real impact within their community (even if that’s supporting the re design of a local allotment project) OR supporting the development of new street graphics.
Is an app the best option? Could a more accessible website / social platform be the answer here? Something people can share to easily (with just their phone not a computer) Low fi solutions
“We envision a world where everyone can shape their local area to create places that make people happy, proud and prosperous”.
Spacehive
Spacehive is a platform for ideas that bring local places to life. They hope to provide a springboard for ideas that make communities happy, proud and prosperous.
“People want to shape their local area”
Spacehive
Spacehive potentially could be a collaborator for the community hub idea I’m thinking of. A platform like this could help projects within the area become funded? Even designer / creatives could pitch their ideas through Spacehive?
Is there a conflict here? I don’t think so as I’m looking at a space where creators / communities can share their ideas / work on projects more locally to have impact further out (a funding stream however would be required potentially for some projects, which is where Spacehive may become important for example)
Another reference I came across while researching current models / places which are brining people together is Your Park, Bristol and Bath which was founded as part of the Rethinking Parks programme.
The charity has been set up to showcase and bring together people within the parks in Bristol & Bath to experience the benefits they have on our mental health and more recently isolation from others. This is another programme which is seeking our local projects to do good.
Can there be a central place for all these initiatives? so that others can access them? Bring together community & Graphic Design?
Weekly Reflections
This week was another step in the development of my own practice. I had a slight diversion this week and started to work on a separate project (combination) which in the end didn’t quite feel right. This project actually felt more like the development of my overall practice.
What I have learnt this week is how far my practice is developing. I’m initiating research and conversation which is always coming back to my developing practice, which is positive.
Things to remember – make sure what I’m exploring is continuing to develop my practice, continue to push the boundaries and don’t fall back to ‘safe’ areas to work within. When i’m pushing the boundaries this is where my best work is coming from (for example the pond and mill development)
James Shaw 