Lizzie Wa Design

Lecture 1 – Collaboration around the Globe

Part1 – Kenjoiro Kirton Hato from Hato Press

The studio started in 2009 with the idea of questioning what design is and incorporating more engagement with communities into it. They believe that design is a tool that we have, but it becomes interesting when its used to connect and communicate with people. 

They got a risograph printer to allow them to set up a printing press to support their studio financially. It also worked to support the community and add value to it.

The printing press is a tool to help others to be more creative. 

The studio works closely and collaboratively with their clients, looking for a collective voice instead of an individuals perspective. 

They set up another outpost in Hong Kong due to a job opportunity there, and through that job they got offered more and more similar work with galleries and cultural institutions there. They are working on the same sector of work as in London but the work is very different due to the socially and clients in Hong Kong. They believe they can add value to the audience in Hong Kong. 

They use the idea of learning through play and learning by making. They want to learn something new on each project the undertake. 

To ensure communication between the two studios they use multiple premade tools such as whatsapp. One of the benefits of working in such different time zones is that they can cover an almost 24ht period if needed on a project. 

They run workshops with teams to make the more innovative, thin differently or be more collaborative. They think its important for people and brands to really think about co-creation and make things with their audience instead of at them. 

Hato student society supports creative students with free portfolio reviews, free workshops and cheap printing to help them launch creative projects. 

Analysis 

In this situation, the risograph printer they bought works as a collaborative tool, bringing people into their studio to work on projects and allowing the community to collaborate. They also highlight the importance of having someone on the ground when working within other countries and cultures, as you can create brilliant designs in one country that will never work in another. You need local knowledge and understanding of the place and culture to create relevant work. The challenge when working globally is tying these together. 

Part 2 – New Studio – Axel Peemoeller and Rita Mates 

New Studio is an international collective of designers who have a modern approach to collaboration. They enjoy collaborating with different people and on different projects. 

Axel found people who thought in a similar way to him and now they work in a team but with the freedom of working for themselves. The studio has bought together people from multiple specialisms including photography, architecture, CGI etc so they can offer clients a more rounded skillset. 

It is a small team and they are in constant communication so they know what everyone is doing, and they sometimes have in person meetings. 

They work like a group of separate business buts in a collective sense. The multidisciplinary global network allows each part to be much bigger than their local capacities. 

They find communication tools like Skype to be very valuable when working all around the world. Like Hato, they also can work for 24hrs on a project if needed to fit tight deadline, but the downside of this is somethings the time differences can slow down decisions. Sometimes they have to meet for a few weeks to get a project finished in person. 

Axel describes their group discussions as a ‘veggie garden’ where everyone is taking part of their own little bit to ensure the vegetables grow. Everyone does their bit and sees it as their own studio. The collective members have to give as well as take. 

Their payment structure is interesting. The person who finds the work gets 10% and then the 90% is split out between the people working on it depending on the size of their contribution. 

They all have connections all over the world so it allows for a rich and steady flow of diverse work. 

Analysis

This way of working is really interesting, getting people together but keeping them as individuals. It allows for constant collaboration across specialisms and countries in a natural and organic way, unlike if they were all in a studio working on a project the studio has given them. Each person gets to choose their projects and then reach out to others with the relevant specialism to help them. 

Communication, even when in different countries seems to be very important to them, and sometimes nothing works as well as getting two people into the same room to get a project done.

Lecture 2 – The future of Graphic design globally. 

Simon Manchip believes that globalisation and technology allows you to meet people that are things in a very different way to you. He also makes and interesting point about how if you make your designs very visual from the off, clients are more likely to understand your vision and agree with it. Have a more interdisciplinary group of people to allow this to happen is important. 

Turner Duckworth (Butler 2012)

This studio introduces the idea of ‘competitive collaboration’

Designers work together with the studio and between studios, but with the idea of creating the ‘winning concept’. If a designers concept is chosen, they get to see the project through to production. 

On visual identity projects, they normally work with a larger core team who know the client well, then rotate designers in and out of the trams to keep the ideas fresh. 

They also practise something called a ‘distance Crit’ where people in the sister office review the work in progress and provide input. They do this without any information about the technicality’s of the project or knowledge of who has done the work so they can asses it more impartially. Their input is one focused on the alit of the product. They can also provide a different cultural perspective. 

They also run programme where designers swap jobs with a counterpart in another studio to gain insight into a different cultural way of working. 

Analysis

Turner Duckworth have some very interesting and different ideas of how to run a studio. The idea of competing for a winning concept is interesting, but I can see how it might create a competitive and less collaborative atmosphere within the studio if not properly managed. I think getting people to comment on work without any extra knowledge of the project is a really good way of getting a different perspective on how it looks, and one more similar to how the consumer would see it. 

Workshop Challenge 

I started by thinking about some issues that might occur:

• Lack of understanding between people – potentially even worse if over different cultures
• Negative comments on work 
• Not knowing how individuals work
• Lack of personal connection when on a global scale 
• Louder people taking centre stage 
• Lack of connectivity and comfort to be relaxed, creative and bold in thinking 

Then I went on to look at ways of collaborating and specifically ways to help introverts collaborate better.

Introverts take longer to process information, but they can often do it more thoughtfully. (Breit 2018) 

There are also numerous cases that show that group-focused brainstorming sessions can actually backfire or hinder creative thinking. When we’re in groups presenting a new idea to others, we might defer too quickly to people who disagree with us. People succumb to peer pressure. More dominant, charismatic members of the group can take over and dictate an agenda.

(Deguzman 2012)

• Giving all ideas an equal start?
• Letting collaboration happen more naturally 
• Allowing time away to think and process – making this on equal importance as group time. 
• Time before to prepare
• Stopping louder people from taking charge the whole way through  
• Recording/ note taking (otter) of discussion to allow them to read back and think about. 

• Word cloud/ tag cloud 
• Cyclical collaboration process. 30 mins together – 30 mins alone – 20 mins break.  

Sending ideas and thoughts to a main digital board during a discussion like collaborative note taking- eliminates stress of speaking out about ideas, stops the loudest person getting the most input. Stops you focusing on the idea you want to voice and therefore not listening to the conversation. They would be anonymous at the time so any bad ideas could disappear without the person who made them having to face that. 

I then also looked at potential tools that could be used to help people working collaboratively to come up with ideas:

In a year of separation I think digital tools have shown their strength and use, however I think its also left people craving human contact and highlighted the importance of in person meeting. Nuances can be lost virtually and misunderstandings are much more frequent. Also the distance can also make you feel emotionally distanced from the people you’re working with. 

Maybe you need to get a collaborative group together physically first to break down barriers, have some fun, gain insight into how the other works and get their creative juices flowing? Then if they are working separately and remotely this work will be more productive and collaborative? 

• Using play and childlike fun to break barriers and spark creativity – some kind of game 
• Speed dating for designers – like an escape room type tasks – who do you work well with – who pushes you to work in exciting ways – who doesn’t gel with you
• Or each section or issue is separated out and collaboration team move around them 1 on 1 in 15 min bursts. 

However all of these ideas so far seem quite vague and more like things to consider when working collaboratively or working in general, instead of new and exciting collaborations. 

I explored some already created collaboration and communication tools:

Wiki– I recently heard about a wiki so did some more research into what they are and when they can be useful. 

“You’ll likely get the most value from a wiki if the following points apply:

• You’re trying to build up a “big picture” based on multiple perspectives.
• You want to capture information that’s evolving or still being agreed.
• Everyone on the team needs to see all the knowledge gathered so far.
• There’s value in creating links to other information, either internal or external.
• It’s helpful to see all the writing and editing steps that have led to this point.
• It won’t be disastrous if errors appear, because they’ll quickly be spotted and fixed.” (Mind Tools 2019)

Zoom(and similar) has been an invaluable tool during the last year. Its allowed people to stay in communication across the world and companies to keep going whilst everyone works from home. It has also been really valuable for peoples mental health. It is not as good as seeing people in real life, but its definitely the second best option. 

Online Whiteboard tools like Miro are an interesting way to collaborate, allowing multiple people to edit and adapt something together and in real time. This could be an interesting way to create new artworks or designs together, as well as a good tool for collaborative working on a design project as you can create visual changes as you speak to someone. 

Social media is another example of the power of communication platforms. Each platform offers different advantages to users trying to collaborate. Pinterest and instagram are very visual and allow people to collaborate around a common theme using boards or hashtags. Facebook is a good tool for community collaboration with groups and pages allowing people with similar interests to join together on projects or activities. The thing all of them have in common is the ability to reach large and previously hard to reach groups of people and motivate them for a common cause, as well as allowing you to reach out to specific individuals outside of your social, academic or professional circles for collaborations. 

I decided that I wanted my collaborative tool to help either the environment or mental health, so I started brainstorming potential ideas. 

Environmental 

Connecting people who care about the environment – pro bono collaboration? Open source platform for ideas, knowledge sharing and skill donation? Virtual volunteering? Like Fiverr but for good? 

I like the idea that all the people we need to create massive global change live somewhere – so who knows what sources of knowledge and expertise live on your street? If you can bring people together into more of a community and give them the tools to create change together? 

Local collaborations between neighbours. A platform for people to reach out to others for help and support, skill swap, share information and work together like a community. You post your project/need and others can offer advice or agree to work with you. Or possibly as a physical collaboration space for the community. They can work towards solutions to local and global issues. Giving people the power to make changes in their community. 

Co-working space with free access to creative tools but only with agreement that they share their knowledge

Giving people the power to make changes in their community. 

 Mental Health

Governmental change is linked to society so getting society to care more about mental health, so raising awareness is still vital in this. You need to get people tp understand the realities of mental health, how prevalent it is and what can help. This also draws back to my conversation last week about how nature can be a powerful tool in helping people with their mental health.

My Initial Ideas

1- A collaborative exhibition made up of data insights from people who have mental health conditions or mental illness. Digitally collect data from mental health sufferers daily about their mood and symptoms over 6months/a year. 

Create this into an exhibition so people can interact with it in an immersive space and experience it for themselves. Colour changes due to mood, noise levels increase due to anxiety, inclusion of voices or intrusive thoughts etc. 

2- A simple online drawing tool where people can fill in a square with colours and lines and shapes to represent their experience of mental health. This is then randomly combined to create an exhibition of peoples experiences. 

3- Local collaborations between neighbours. A platform for people to reach out to others for help and support, skill swap, share information and work together like a community. You post your project/need and others can offer advice or agree to work with you. Or possibly as a physical collaboration space for the community. They can work towards solutions to local and global issues. Giving people the power to make changes in their community.

4- Online open source resource for ways to bring nature into schooling and therefore benefit the wellbeing and mental health of young people. 

• Things to make etc 
• Map of good Places to visit 
• Nature and wellbeing activities – all created by the public using it. 

What next?

I feel particular drawn to the first and fourth idea as they sit nicely with my discussion with Dan from Mayfield Nurseries last week. They both offers a potential part solution to the issues we discussed. Either by raising awareness of mental health further or by helping young people connect with nature. 

Idea 1 – Mental Health Collaborative Exhibition 

My exhibition would be created with the aim to tasing awareness of mental health problems and metal illnesses. While we are much more aware than we were a few years ago, there is still a lot of stigma and stereotypes towards metal health, especially around illnesses such as Schizophrenia. This exhibition would show a sped up year of someone’s life, to give them a better insight into the day to day realities of living with a mental health condition. 

To create this exhibition I would need to create a platform to collect peoples data. This could be simple or complex depending on what variables I decided to collect. I would want to collaborate with mental health experts to help me set the variables and limit to what data people could add. When the data was collected I would also need to collaborate with sound engineers, lighting experts and exhibition designers to bring my idea to life in an exhibition. I would also want to carry on my collaboration with the individuals whose data I have collected to allow them to have some say as to how their data was displayed, as well as feedback as to what emotions and feelings the finished exhibition creates in them. 

Idea 4 – Collaborative Platform to Engage Children in Nature 

After my discussion with dan highlighted the importance of connecting to nature for peoples mental health and wellbeing, I decided to try and create a tool to aid this. 

To explore this idea further, I spoke to an early years teacher with experience working within primary schools. She told me that the curriculum is hard to adapt and already very full. The chances to get out and about as a class are limited and teachers are overworked and may be unlikely to want to engage with my platform. 

She also explained however, that early years learning is very much under appreciated. Most brain function is formed before 5 years old and the experiences that children have at this stage are integral to how they grow up. If you can get an understanding of time in nature from a young age, the specifics won’t be remembered, but the impact on their brain and wellbeing will continue as they grow. 

Therefore I think my collaborative platform is better aimed at parents, childminders and early years establishments. 

It would give them ideas and challenges to help them engage children in nature and open up easy conversations about wellbeing. It will also show them good local spots to visit, activities to do there and timestamped updates of wildlife activity such as nests etc. 

This will all be updated by the community with their ideas and as a place to share knowledge, set up nature groups. The more collaboration and engagement that takes place, the more valuable the resource will become. 

To create this, I would also have to collaborate with nature and early years experts to start with to create a selection of activities and recourses to start off the platform. 

I decided this is the idea I will take forwards, so I started to research more into the idea. 

I researched forest school which is a programme to allow children to learn part of their curriculum but within a forest environment. “The process helps and facilitates more than knowledge-gathering, it helps learners develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. It creates a safe, non-judgemental nurturing environment for learners to try stuff out and take risks.” (Forest School Association 2021)

“From birth to age 5, a child’s brain develops more than at any other time in life. And early brain development has a lasting impact on a child’s ability to learn and succeed in school and life. The quality of a child’s experiences in the first few years of life – positive or negative – helps shape how their brain develops.”(First Things First 2018)

The Royal foundation looks into the importance of early childhood and how experiences at this time are often the root cause of many issues such as poor mental health later in life. (Royal Foundation 2021)

“Access to nature and outdoor spaces, including parks and playgrounds, also provide opportunities to boost physical and mental health, and offer vital opportunities for social interaction with other children.

Play is a crucial part of development, since it’s one of the ways in which a child discovers new things.”

Children who develop well at a young age are more likely to succeed in secondary school and therefore less likely to experience poor health and mental health as adults.  (Centre for Early Childhood 2021)

I sent some questions to an early years nursery practitioner to get her perspective.

Why is early years education so important?

Education in a setting like a child-minder, preschool or nursery can offer lots to children.  Learning through first-hand experience is vital and a challenging environment where children can learn through safe and carefully planned activities helps children build relationships, language, physical skills and also coping strategies for later life. 

Early years are the root for a child’s future development. 

How important are the first few years of children’s lives for their future development?

The brain grows the most during the years 0-3.  The experiences a young child has are the building blocks for the brain and affect life outcomes. Neural pathways that may be used for life are laid down in the early years. Brain architecture and behaviour are increasingly difficult to change with age. 

How can time in nature shape their early development?

Studies have shown that spending time in nature calms the nervous system. Urban environments, homes or inside education settings can be busy, noisy, artificially heated and lit etc. distractions have to be ignored or filtered out, which can cause stress and fatigue – natural environments 

Being in nature has an effect on the way that brains and bodies develop.  Playing outside in nature allows free, creative and independent play.  This in turn fosters physically healthy, motivated and confident children. (Sarah Blackwell, www.forestschools.com)

Does interacting with nature at a young age have lasting benefits as they grow up?

Natural environment is unpredictable and unstructured and studies have shown that time spent in nature promotes greater concentration, greater self-control and higher attention and ability to focus.  Young children, if offered opportunities for spontaneous play in green spaces, grow to become more independent, active and enquiring.  Skills learnt in early childhood shape the adult. 

What are good ways to help children interact with nature?

Children seem to naturally interact with nature once they are actually surrounded by it.

Ideas used at Forest School:

• Build with and dig in dirt
• Gaze at clouds
• Jump in puddles
• Listen to birds sing
• Smell fresh-cut grass
• Collect seeds
• Construct things with twigs and mud
• Treasure hunts/bug hunts
• Observing creatures
• Climbing trees
• Identifying plants/animals/trees
• Hanging and swinging from bars
• Jumping over or into puddles

What are good ways to help children start to think about their wellbeing? 

Discussion about keeping physically healthy and safe– that naturally happen in the natural environment. 

Labelling emotions for young children so they understand the emotion that they are feeling eg.  I think you are feeling angry that your model has just broken… I can see you are very pleased to have climbed that tree…

Do you think an online resource that offered games, activities and learning materials to give parents, childminders and early years establishments ideas of what to do in nature as well as a map of local spots near them to visit interesting parts of nature, see wildlife and enjoy nature trails etc. would be valuable?

Yes. Particularly if it was local – indentifying places that are safe and free to use.

Outcome

My platform would be an online collaborative, open source platform to help parents and caregivers to introduce young children to nature. The first few years of a child’s life are the most important years for their brain development and can pave the way for their future mental health and wellbeing. Allowing frequent time for unstructured play and exploration within nature helps to build calmer, more confident and more resilient children. 

My platform would be created in collaboration with nature experts, early years and education professionals and mental health experts, and would be supported by organisations such as the RHS, the RSPB and the National Trust. 

The platform would contain easy to use guides, ideas and activities for spending quality time with a young child in nature. Experts from early years establishments would upload new activities through our portal to be made into fun and easy to follow activity sheets.  

It would feature an open sourced map to allow people to find local child friendly spots to visit. Other local parents or caregivers could add in places to visit for nature trails, wildlife spotting and even add timestamped wildlife sightings for others to access such as the discovery of a birds nest. People could upload photos, activities that their children have enjoyed and share knowledge within the community. A team of experts would offer extra knowledge and information from the images supplied to the site allowing people to teach their little ones even more about the natural world. 

Things to consider going forwards: 

• Deprived children 

• could you offer a buddy system where you agree to take another child along with you in nature?
• Extra curricula groups with an amount  of free spaces for low-income households 

• What knowledge I need from which experts 

Reflection

Global collaboration is becoming much more common due to modern technology. It allows design studios to open up exciting new markets, understand a new culture firsthand and at times work on a 24hr basis. It also has disadvantages though, with a lack of in person collaboration and times when the time difference slows communication and decisions right down.

Design studios who work collaboratively seems to have different ways of working that suit them, but all frequently hinge on collaboration and communication platforms.

This weeks I looked into a lot of ways to aid collaboration between designers and between designers and other disciplines. I came across some interesting ideas that I would like to try out in future collaborative situations to see what works best for me and the group I am in.

After my conversation with Dan from Mayfield Nurseries last week, I decided to carry on investigating what can be done to help improve mental health in young people by getting them into nature. My initial idea to engage parents are care givers of young children still needs a lot of work and thought, but I think it has some merit as a way of helping to instil calmness and wellbeing in children from a young age.

Reference list

BREIT, Carly. 2018. “The Surprising Benefits of Being an Introvert.” Time [online]. Available at: https://time.com/5373403/surprising-benefits-introvert/.

BUTLER, Andy. 2012. “David Turner (Turner Duckworth) Interview.” designboom | architecture & design magazine[online]. Available at: https://www.designboom.com/design/david-turner-turner-duckworth-interview/.

CENTRE FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD. 2021. “Building a Healthy Brain – Centre for Early Childhood.” Building a healthy brain – Centre for Early Childhood [online]. Available at: https://centreforearlychildhood.org/building-a-healthy-brain/ [accessed 16 Jul 2021].

DEGUZMAN, Genevieve. 2012. “Five Collaboration Tips from Introverts.” Greater Good [online]. Available at: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_collaboration_tips_from_introverts [accessed 16 Jul 2021].

FIRST THINGS FIRST. 2018. “Brain Development – First Things First.” First Things First [online]. Available at: https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/.

FOREST SCHOOL ASSOCIATION. 2021. “What Is Forest School? | Forest School Association.” Forest School Association [online]. Available at: https://forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/.

MIND TOOLS. 2019. “How to Create a Wiki: Setting up a Collaborative Online Workspace.” Mindtools.com [online]. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/how-to-create-a-wiki.htm.

MUCHO. 2018. “Mucho: A Conversation with Rob Duncan and Brett Wickens.” Vimeo [online]. Available at: https://vimeo.com/290372065.

ROYAL FOUNDATION. 2021. “Early Years.” Royal Foundation [online]. Available at: https://royalfoundation.com/early-years/ [accessed 16 Jul 2021].