Success stories
RSA Design Directions:
Engage! Co-designing for Change
In recent years the RSA's Design Directions programme has been shifting the focus of the briefs it sets from being largely market-led to more issues-led, asking students to think about how their skills can address social challenges.
As part of this transition, the RSA collaborated with NESTA to formulate a set of four 'Design for Living' briefs to explore the designers' role in society. Working with Involve, thinkpublic co-wrote "Engage!", one of the four briefs set for the RSA Design Directions 2007/2008 student award scheme. The brief asked the students to engage with a community, and an issue that is of importance to it, and then to explore catalysing social change through design-led citizen participation.
There was a huge response to our Engage! brief and entries were submitted from students across a wide variety of disciplines (architecture, graphics, communication), demonstrating a significant interest in co-designing in a social context. In addition there was a broad range of issues approached, involving many different groups and communities.
In June 2008, we were involved in short listing five project entries, and later judging the final award-winning project. The chosen short listed entries reflected the broad sweep of groups and issues tackled and each illustrated the social context as fertile ground for designers to operate within. This was a highly successful exploration into the social role for designers, and we were pleased to discover such a huge number of co-design entries and application.
