ch 1 / Immerse Yourself
Shea describes immersion as the involvement of and the direct relationship to the community as an essential function for creating positive outcomes from public deisgn projects. He defines it as "any number of ways you may spend time with the community." By considering community/organization members as partners (rather than clients) the projects have much better opportunities to succeed. He gives two cas studies to contrast, the first from his MICA program and the second from Pentagram (Beirut and Kai Salmela).
CareS mobile safety Center / MICA
Baltimore MD, 2009 / 16 weeks / 5 designers, 2 leaders, 4 partners (individuals)
A student group collaborated with the CareS mobile safety center to update the designs used within it's RV teaching center to better reach the hispanic community of Baltimore. The team created designs that included bilingual signs, a safety check poster, and a pamphlet. not shown but identified was an exhibition design. the outcome was fairly unclear since the pieces were not produced due to lack of funding.
Green Patriot Posters / Pentagram
Cleveland OH, 2008 / 12 weeks / 2 designers, 3 leaders, 2 partners
Pentagram partnered with the Canary Project to design public advertisements that would increase conversation, and eventually acceptance of some form, around global warming. Pentagram created a series of three ads, using engagin copy lines with minimal typographic and iconic historic military silhouettes. The ads were produced and posted, but outcomes were not measured due to funding. the team also sent out 20 volunteers onto buses to use the ads to spur conversation. Of those that occured, many stated that the ads were vague and the message unclear. Morris, one of the leaders, cited that community involveent up front would have led to a more successful project. As an outsider to the city, Shea suggests that he may not have received ful buy-in from the community of Clevland on the project.
ch 2 / Build Trust
Less focused on citations, Shea focuses on how to gain more than why you need trust in the first place. He warns of the peril of designs being rejected by a community that doesn't trust it's creation. A group call Prevention by Design suggests that without trust, communities "go away feeling used." Shea offer benefits of trust, such as emotional connection & greater pride in your solution. Shea directs trust by "approaching projects with an open mind," "making a meal for them," or "meeting one of their basic needs."
No Hooks Before Books / Mark Alcansabas (MICA)
West Baltimore, MD, 2009 / 20 weeks / 2 designers, 3 Leaders (1 is both roles), 1 partner
A group of designers collaborated with a local organization resonating with it's mission. They worked to understand the organization's role and functino in the culture. They created a 32 page promotional newspaper to help with communications to donors and posters redesigns to better communicate with kids that might be interested in joining. Alcansabas, the main designer and lead on the project, noted that if starting again, he'd have gotten more immersed to the organization while doing the work. 2000 copies of the newspaper were produced, no number identified for the poster. No future measurements were identified. The designers perceived the solution as a success.
A Book by its Cover: Reading Stereotypes / Ramsy Mazri (Design Ignites Change)
Kansas City, MO / 1 year / 1 designer, 1 leader (same), 4 partners
A solo designer wanted to address the stereotypes that culture produces in America against Islamic ethinicities. Ramzy Masri reseached students perceptions of muslims by having them draw their perspectives on paper amongst other things. He concluded that the problem was more serious than he originally hypothesized. HE decided to create children's books that address the perceptions. He focused on students age 8-10, noting that their racial identities were not yet fully formed. The solution, with designs similar in style to El Lissitsky's project About 2 Squares, involved geometric shapes become primary characters in the novel. This references the aversion to iconography in muslim culture as well as allows the students to imagine the characters in their own mind. Measurements of the project were unclear, but did seem to resonate with teachers, who also found the designs valuable towards issues such as bullying.
ch 3 / Promise Only What you can deliver
The world doesn't need another empty promise about a utopia that makes everything better. It's much more effective to create something within the constraints that you face. If you have 4 weeks, then focus the project in that context. Same with finances, teams, capabilities etc. Quoting IDEO's Design for Social Impact, Shea notes "Narrowing the scope of the project can often serve as an effective lever to increase efficiency." He guides away from inventing "grand solutions" and instead focuses on practical problem that can be solved within the parameters of the projects.
Project Winterfood / Virginia Commonwealth
Richmond, VA / 16 weeks / 15 students, 1 leader (teacher), 8 partners
An exhibit designed by a graphic design class at VA Commonwealth, this project worked to take a small budget ($100) and manifest something valuable to the community around an initiative agreed upon as a class. The group parntered with local organizations and CSAs to build a bigger reach and collaboration with the sourrounding area. A multitude of identity, book, and collateral projects were created for the exhibit, promoting the value in eating healthy and educating the challenge citizens faced in the area. The project stayed geared around a "master schedule" and was designed to force students to face the reality of a deadline on a massive project. Measurement was a bit muddy, one suggestion being to look at the increase (or lack thereof) in participation for the partnering CSAs. Noah Scalin, the teacher, however warned against having false measures of the outcome and preferred to emphasize the confidence it spurred in his class to the students, referencing that many go on to continue similar projects in their career.
Safari 7 / MTWTF, Columbia University Urban Landscape Lab, and Yale School of Art
New York, NY / 2008-present (2013 is last update) / 30+ Designers, 3 Leaders, 5 partners
Educating the surround train-riders of NY about the surroudning ecology was a daunting task that a group of 30+ designers, 1 design studio, and a collection of larger partners desired to pursue. The first project in the book to still be active involved the creation of a narrative podcast that gives people a tour of the wildlife wihtin the city on their busline. The orginal line being the 7, hence the name Safari 7. The team created a collection of communication materials to promote and support the podcast and a website now live fro dowloads and information on the project. They also concluded the creation with an exhibit displaying the work. Safari7 has since expanded to become 3 more lines, though communications on their site ceased since the end of 2013. Thousands of people have downloaded the podcast and a warming story about one very inspired boy creating his own safari7 for the "1" line.
ch 4 / Prioritize Process
Shea emphasizes working through the "proven" problem-solving process that graphic design and other practices of design offer, which bring fresh perspectives on known issues. A warning about 'fixed ideas' is given, stating their premature bias and the probelm it can create. By focusing on process, you reconfigure the project around design's involvement to improve initial ideas.
Made in Midtown / MTWTF
New York City, NY / 9 Months / 7 designers, 3 Leaders, 2 partners
In order to prevent harmful policy changes, The CFDA collaborated with MTWTF to build a small coalition of materials to defend their perspective on the argument. The team created an identity, website, a newspaper, tote bag, and an exhibit to display the narrative. Timing was essential since the measure was due to be enacted soon. The project was very research-driven, and that focus helped elicit the right information to present to the city. They were successful in putting a hold on the plans, while simultaneously reaching 80 countries with user spending an average of 8 minutes per visit on the site.
ProjectOPEN / Open Group from UCLA
Santa Monica, CA / 1 year + 1 to distribute & ongoing / 5 Designers, 0 Leader, 2 partners
The team of student working on Project OPEN wanted to create something that would help the homeless in their city. They researched and studied the problems that homeless people face with the complexity of accessing resources and working their way through the system. ProjectOPEN created a map of the locations of organization that were there to help them. With backing by the city government, the students had built a great process focused on helping the right people and partnering with the "right" stakeholders. The plan hit a glitch, however, when discussing the content on the poster. the city demanded that legal rights information be removed from the poster and the team, becaus etheir research showed it to be necessary, refused to remove it. In the end, the city refused to pay for the printing of the posters, and so the team after a few years of completing the poster/booklet, set out to print it on their own successfully. 1000 copies were distributed, and now known as BRUTE Labs, they looked to expand it.
ch 5 / Confront Controversy
Conflict plays an imporatn role in the disruption of social & cultural 'norms.' Shea suggest smaller increments of disrpution, but agrued that without some disruptin, thing simply will return to how they were. Trust and rapport are essential to give room for the disruption. He also suggests to "meet with the community partners frequently to make sure that your designs emphasize the outcomes that are needed in the community with taste and playfulness."
The Importance of Dialogue / Viginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA / 3 months / 14 designers, 1 leader, 1 partner
Attacking the problem of preadtory lending practices in Kansas City, A VA Commonwealth class created posters to address the problem & communicate information about it. The became severely divided on the issue, some believing that the people entering the space were naîve and immature with the handling of their finances, while others blamed the lending organization. Chessin, the teacher, found the greatest value was in the dialogue and arguments the students had about the issue & their ability to come to a shared understanding. She suggested for future classes it would be helpful to "talk about policy debates and social welfare, as 'interdisciplinary approaches help students recognize that graphic design is not a delivery so much as it is an invitation to research and engage.'" The posters were hung in the General Assembly Building during a legislative session.
Stories of the City / Art Institute (Kansas City)
Kansas City MO / 5 months / 1 designer, 1 leader, 0 partners
Tyler Galloway wanted his students to reach out to his neighbors and create an increased sense of solidarity in his local community. One student, Morgan Ashley Allen, decided to create a questionnaire to show her fellow neighbors her interest in their life. She found very few people really valued the gesture and others were quite annoyed by it and vocalized his annoyance with her putting things into people's mailbox. In the end, Allen really didn't make positive connections with anyone and the project simply wasn't embraced, leaving her stuck with a failed initiative. Galloway felt his framing of the project was to blame, while Allen decided similarly that it was her focus on strangers and not people she was already familiar with that caused the lack of response.
ch 6 / Identify the Community's Strengths
social initiatives, almost by nature, focus into the challenges often at the expese of the abundant resources available alread within the community, which can be better for self-esteem as well as project acceptance. Shea quotes Prevention By Design (of Berkley U) saying "there is a tendency to emerge from a communtiy process with a heavy emphasis on problems." Shea suggest breaking that natural emphasis by gaining inspiration from community members and tying emotionally with the "general public."
Reason to Give / Firebelly Foundation
Chicago, IL / 3+ years (up to 10 now) / 2 designers, 1 leader (also designer), 1 partner
Firebelly created an online space for giving to neighbors within the Humboldt community in Chicago. They organized the site around a narrative of the needs that neighbor had. The design focused on capturing both explicit as well as implicit needs, like food & water as well as computers & technology. Multiple families needs have been met through the platform, and as many as 45 volunteers over 3000+ hours of time have contributed. The website traffic was around 2000 hits/month at the time of publication.
Es Tiempo / Art Center College of Design
Los Angeles, CA / 3 months / 7 designers, 2 leaders, 4 partners
A group of student coordinated to create a campaign emphasizing the importance of getting a pap smear, particularly to latina women in the LA area. The found that discretion was valued more over declaration and thus worked to create an effective, yet discrete campaign. Thye also foudn their audience to be "very sensitive to brands and design, and they weren't necessarily interested in being singled out." The group created a kit to help the women feel more comfortable about the experience, not just get them in the door. No measurement of success or failure was identified as the project was launching at the time of publication.
ch 7 / Utilize Local Resources
Shea argues to source the production of your project with local assets inside the community you are serving. He argues that it "creates a design more effectively integrates into their lives and that empowers them to deal with similar issues in the future."
Wet Work / Moving Design
Los Angeles, CA / 2 months / 1 designer, 2 leaders, 16 partners (indiv. @ a workshop)
A collection of motivated designers worked together to create an event, Moving Design Intervention on water. The group collectively created installations around the city with bold typographic forms and various media. Water was regularly used in the creation of the designs. The group saw their work as a "public face to an important issue." Results were modest in objective and outcome, but did appear to have impact. Then-mayor and state-treasurer of Chicago Illionois both suggested actions on reversing the river to deal with water issues.
Key for the City / Society of Design
Lancaster, PA / 1 month / 17 designers/studios, 3 leaders, 3 partners
A collection of designers (and artists) organized the creative exploration of pianos as art objects, painting and transforming them into new artifacts. The pianos were installed throughout the city, publicly available for playing. The team also ran campaign to promote the festival correlated to the project, Keys to the City. $40,000 was riased for Music for Everyone. Thousand of people played the pianos, and multitudes of backgrounds came together for the festival. The team did however find themselves overwhelmed by the enormity of the project. They also found that what may seem permanent is just as temporal as anything else. nigehbors complained of the noise of the pianos being played at night, and were eventually removed for that and other reasons. Regardless, the project appeared succesful while it was active.
ch 8 / Design with the Community's Voice
Here, Shea argues that the community should drive the creation of the design, not the designer. If you're aesthetics disagree with the community, focus on the community's direction and how you disagreement could be integrated with their vision, don't overpower it. The designer can bring a valuable outside voice to a broken concept, but it's shouldn't condemn the original source. Don't forget who these designs are supposed to be for.
Shea suggests sampling colors, typefaes, and style from the community and utilize information from your research on the community. HE also suggests the more divers the community, the more general the entry point will need to be. He quotes (Jim) Cavaye on his essay on governance and community engagement & from an interview in 2008. In the interview he said "The design solution or design's visual language. It's informed by the community. There's this great sense of release that comes with that approach: It's not important what it looks like as much as how it changes behavior, or how it can give a voice to a community. Who really cares what it looks like, as long as the community engages with it and feels a sense of ownership-that's what's important."
Vendor Power! / Center for Urban Pedagogy
New York City, NY, 2010 / 13 months / 1 designer, 2 Leaders, 1 partner
Working with the vedors of New York City, CUP created a brochure/poster that outlines simple & translated language to the policies that affect vendors. Many vendors end up paying hefty fines for things such as blocking a sidewalk in a certain way and are easily mistreated by police and other powers. A thousand copies were distributed to the vendors around New York City and many felt very thankful to have it. The lesson learned states "the illustrative style of the brochure was essential to communicate the important policies to people of every nationality."
The 1% User Manual / Mende Design
San Francisco, CA, 2010 / 1 year / 1 designer, 1 Leader (same as designer), 1 partner
A Sappi Ideas That Matter winner, the 1% User manual is a booklet created to encourage architectural firms to give 1% of their billable hours to work on and support architeture for nonprofits. 1% was created by Public Architecture in San Fransisco, CA that in their words "puts the resources of architecture in the service of public interest." The booklet was for both architects and nonprofits and was created with and open-ended narrative. With it's publication, PA's membership jumped to 500 firms, no word on greater adoption from nonprofits. The main challenge appeared to be the enormous amount of content that Mende was faced with managing.
ch 9 / Give Communities Ownership
The role of ownership is very important in designing in the public space. When creating something for a community, it mus be theirs and not yours. Shea challenges designers to "foster collaborative relationships with community memebrs in all phases of the design process." He's hinting at the fact that the designer's agenda is not the same of a community, and one should have precedent over the other, but there's no reason for disconnect. Instead by being intentional about community roles up front, the project is more likely to succeed. He again quotes Cavaye saying to balance "the provision of resources and expertise with the importance of maintaining genuine community ownership and self reliance."
Pecans! / PieLab
Greensboro, AL / 2 years + / 5 designers & 15 students, 2 Leaders (also designers), 3 partners
PieLab integrated into a small neighborhood in Greensboro Alabama, and opened up a pie shop. A few students in the Lab connected with the local community to try and make an impact. Their objective became assisting 15 students from a program called YouthBuild Greensboro. They decided on pecan brittle and butter that ould potentially sell in their PieLab. Getting the student to own the process proved to be a design challenge in and of itself, as their attention spans were short and difficult to direct. "It was challenging to explain abstract concepts and processes to the students on the computer and we found the best to get them involved was to physically make something together," spoke Amanda Buck and Robin Mooty. The students created jars of the brittle and butter that were (likely) sold in the pie shop. The team felt it was successful enough to ontinue the next year and have anew group of students
Hawthorne Community Center / Herron School of Art & Design
Indianoplis, IN / 9 months / 11 designers/students, 2 Leaders, 1 partner
A group of students led research into the potentials for a local community center. By interviewing and researching the community that it was made for, they hoped to glean insights about improvements or missed opportunities. Hawthorne was (and is?) made up of a multitude of immigrants, skeptical of outsiders, and that proved to be a challenge for the students. Over time, however, they gained buy-in and gathered together proposals, which were placed in a booklet that they left with the center.
ch 10 / Sustained Engagement
Shea argues not to leave a project to fade away. Through new relationships and understanding, designers leave a project better equipped to have a new project with a more successful outcome. Here the value of local NPO's and community's that embrace their mission leaves designers iwth relationships worth cultivating.
Walk in My Shoes / Piece Studio
Minneapolis, MN / 7 months / 2 designers, 0 leaders noted, 1 partner
Piece Studio connected with a local organization that gets young girls to engage in art projects, for this particular project in performance. With a Sappi ITM grant, Piece supported Old Arizona, the NPO, to help produce a 23-girl performance called Walk in my Shoes. Piece desired to treat the event like a Broadway show after conducting interviews with the teenagers and Old Arizona staff. Their hope was to maintain contact afterward by serving on the board. The actual design work the group created was not used & instead one of the girls that did graffiti work created the visuals. Piece humbly embraced that response instead helped support the creation of those designs. They did end up on the board and continue to support Old Arizona in it's work with the community.
One + 1 / Rise-and-Shine-Studio
San Francisco, CA / 1 year / 4 designers, 2 Leaders (also designers), 1 partner
A small SF-based studio connected with Friends for Youth to create a mentoring journal that could be used to integrate into an existing group of collateral. With a Sappi ITM gran of $50,000, the designers set off researching stories and instantiated the name for the project, One + 1. They then worked towards designing 'with' the community, creating assets for a mentor's journal that captures the narrative of being a mentor. The group appeared quite receptive to the work, stating in an email that the journal was "the most sophisticated and creative tool I've seen for structuring and documenting the life of a match." The journal was built to endure as Rise and Shine created their new journal into improvable templates. The journal, even after 5 years, was still in use.
