So good afternoon everybody my name is Nicky Hardcastle
and I'm a lecturer in Visual Communication
at the UTS School of Design
and I coordinate Socially Responsive Design
and it's a subject that sits in the third year space
and has done so for the past 25 years.
And we're so very grateful
that we have a long-standing relationship
with Shopfront.
It personally is one of the highlights
of my academic teaching
I've only got ten minutes so I'm going to talk quite quickly
to get through all the stuff
I want to share with you today.
So Socially Responsive Design is a subject
that allows third year visual communication students
to work as real life
socially engaged designers.
This subject offers students the opportunity
to work with real clients from community groups
and the not-for-profit sector,
and apply design thinking and strategies
to solve organisational problems
and enhance the impact of these organisations,
who are working on the frontline of community
and social change.
That's yourselves.
And this collaboration allows the students to kind of
step outside of the university
into the community,
building practical skills,
working on real issues,
learning about purpose driven organisations
and this is of course supported by UTS Shopfront
who provide the capacity development
for community based organisations,
support community engaged scholarship,
and facilitate UTS students to develop skills
in community leadership.
I guess if I was to kind of sum up those
the four key insights.
I've worked in this subject for some time now
but I think communication is key.
I think it's a really important skill
for everybody to kind of be,
you know, to kind of practise in I guess.
So the communication between the students themselves.
So in each team
we have five visual communication students.
I think we're running 32 projects this year.
We have 180 students in the year.
So each client will be, you know,
allocated a team of five.
So communication is key between the client
and the student team
and also within the student team itself.
You know they're, we run a lecture series
we teach students how to be professional
in terms of dealing with people but also
in terms of
how they approach their design work.
How they undertake their research.
I think how I mentioned earlier
the importance of empathy.
We have a great lecture
that we share with students on empathy
and it's just you know it's one of those key moments
where students kind of, I don't know,
it's like a light-bulb goes on in their mind
within this subject
and I think 'Ah this is, this is kind of where we are,
this is what we're about'
and of course we're all about being human centred.
I thought it might be helpful to visualise the 12 weeks.
So, you know,
managing 32 clients
and 180 students over 12 weeks
is, you know,
we have to have some kind of structure
and you can see alongside the lecture series we have,
we meet with our students once a week
and there's some key touchpoints
where we actually
ask students to touch base with their clients.
Where they will, you know,
I guess throughout their design project
they will have, you know, an initial client briefing.
They'll come and present concepts.
There'll be an interim presentation.
A follow-up presentation.
and as Mehal mentioned before
the final presentation on handover
which is kind of like...
There's lots of tears on that day
where students are extremely happy,
clients are extremely happy
but there is some structure
and I think Mehal mentioned earlier that,
to me, the projects which are most successful
are ones where the relationship between the student team
and the client is really cemented
and they do put the time and effort into,
even touch base on Zoom,
once a week.
To really, you know,
to be part of that process.
There's two key points in that process as well
which I just want to touch on.
And that is the Kick Off workshop so students...
We meet with our teams in week one
and we run design student teams so our team.
The students will form small design teams together
and we run through how they can undertake,
you know, how to run a workshop essentially
with their clients in week two.
And it's here where,
you know, together you both work out
like it's really good for you to both sit down in a room
and actually, you know, have Post-it notes.
It's by both parties
the student team and yourselves
where you can talk about
how you're going to work
How we're going to work together
in this next 12 weeks.
You know we work on dates,
where, you know, oh actually
I'm at a conference for these four days
I'm going to be away in that week
so it's kind of good for the student team to
understand that.
You know, the team we kind of start to map out
team members within your organisation.
What are the purposes and values of this project?
So it's kind of really important early on
for that communication to be really open
and really transparent.
Another real key point is the immersive experience.
And this is where between Shopfront and myself,
the student team and yourselves,
we work out a set,
an area, where you know, where a moment in time
early on in the process
where the students can come and visit you
in your domain I guess.
They can connect with your clients.
They can connect with shareholders.
They can connect with stakeholders
I should say.
So that gives the students
and this to me is another one of those moments where
the students you know it's that light-bulb moment
where students actually begin to understand
'Oh we're designing this'
and 'this is the problem'.
They can carry out further research
within a particular area.
So this is kind of crucial, I think,
and I've actually got a process video
that I want to share with you.
And I'm just going to...
Which was for Reverse Garbage.
So Reverse Garbage is a reuse centre based in Marrickville.
They reduce waste
and create change in the way resources are viewed.
And students were invited...
I'm just going to move to...
YouTube.
Students were invited along to Reverse Garbage
and this process video kind of shows you
the process the students went through.
So you can see, I mean hopefully, that kind of
gave you a bit of an insight into the process
that the students actually went through.
So, you know, the students design,
they rebranded Reverse Garbage.
They developed a social media campaign
and they used their visual communication skills,
you know, to develop that project.
I've got a couple of projects
I just want to quickly talk through.
This was a project we did called The Moving Poet
which was a public transport poetry initiative
which was a collection of Australian poems
based on social justice issues.
And I guess,
you know, the...
the work itself was placed on public transport
aimed at commuters.
And I guess in this instance, you know,
it was a a vision of our client's
and the students made that vision a reality.
We had a name changed.
I think it was called The Wow Project originally
so we actually look at the problem
and we kind of come back with other suggestions.
It wasn't necessarily, you know,
the client didn't necessarily
want a name change at first.
So, you know, we kind of worked together
so the students and yourselves
will work together quite closely
addressing different issues
as you go through that process
and this client is at the moment in
is talking to Create New South Wales
and Transport New South Wales
to make this kind of a reality.
Another project here is for SoulGen.
It's a social enterprise consultancy
who collaborate with councils, organisations, young people
and they facilitate space where skills are recognised
and brought together.
So the students here designed a website,
they developed collateral around.
They rebranded SoulGen.
They developed a website so digital assets,
you know, down to the icons that are used
on that website.
Printed collateral as well to support that.
The last project I wanted to talk about
was for Northcott Innovation.
And Northcott Innovation
is a supported accommodation group here in Sydney
for adults with intellectual disabilities
and the carers who support them.
The home was in desperate need of a communication upgrade.
This was the original kind of system here that Northcott had
which was a...
and what they wanted was a new scheduling system,
that would reduce visual clutter
and create opportunities for connection
between residents and staff.
So the students designed a new system where
and the result was
it was a system called Building Better Days
which is a modular visual scheduling tool.
And the system comprised of a series of
wall-mounted colour coded blocks
and icons that represent different types of activities.
You know, for example the green block with the leaf icon
signified outside activities
and a red block with a knife and fork
represented meal times.
So the outcome was this system
and at the moment Northcott are still working
with the School of Design to make this project a reality.
And one of the student team members
has actually been offered a job
with Northcott to work in this area.
So I just thought I'd put at the end some client feedback
I know Mehal has already gone through this
but you know it's, you know,
clients are always super happy by the end of the 12 weeks
and we've got here some feedback.
You know, the group went well beyond our expectations.
They listened carefully,
did a huge amount of work.
They were very professional, creative,
and lovely group to work with.
Really impressed with the quality of the work
and their enthusiasm for learning.
And also the students themselves,
like, you know, they're so passionate about this
because it's real, you know, they...
it's one of the best subjects on the course.
It was great working on the project
with real-life clients.
You know, I think in particular type of clients
we got to work with is what makes this subject special.
It felt like we're actually making
a greater impact on their community
and again, you know, similar comments.
And building on their extremely important skills
before they go out into the world
as designers.
I'd just like to thank,
you know, thank you to Shopfront and to yourselves
for letting me share this work
because I'm super passionate about it
and I will hand over.
I could talk about this for a very long time
but thank you for listening.