Design's in Public Engagement

We think that intelligent, multi-disciplinary design processes, outputs and collaborations can challenge the accepted and produce well-thought out, well-designed and well-subscribed projects.

With the general election on the horizon, there is much talk on subject of political engagement and voter apathy, but is this problem really just confined to politics How can design play a role in creating greater engagement?

We believe that the problem of perceived public apathy is not just a problem for politics and is a trend that can be seen in general society, whether it’s individuals failing to engage with each other, their communities, public or private institutions or the state at large.

These are all issues that arise from having marginalised sections of society, disconnected and disinterested youth, general divides, generation divides and rural versus urban, political divides. So our question really is, can design be used an effective tool when tackling issues around engagement?

We believe it can.

We believe that design or creative thinking can be used to offer a package of appropriate and balanced solutions, a kind of a tool kit that allows end-users simple access to simple systems in order to communicate their wants or needs to others.

In order to do this, we as designers need to be more versatile, less precious, and seek to develop a wide range of solutions that work for different people and for specific situations. To achieve this, we need to become multi-disciplinary, more collaborative in our thinking and we need to be able to fully respond to the multi-faceted issues that surround public engagement.
Should we be relying just on stand-alone, traditional practices? Talking specifically here about political engagement, using printed product to form end solutions is something that traditionally has been happening. Is this the best way to go, especially if we’re talking about individuals, and individual needs rather than the general society, the needs of a society. Can you address it in that way?

We believe that some existing schemes that target traditional public involvement do more harm than good. We think that intelligent, multi-disciplinary design processes, outputs and collaborations can challenge the accepted and produce well-thought out, well-designed and well-subscribed projects.

The multi-dimensional solutions which afford the end-user the opportunity to pick and choose what works best for them is the key, giving people every opportunity to affect their immediate environment and engineer positive change for themselves. So, we’re talking about designing, creating toolkits for people to dip into and out of as they see fit. In that way you are not isolating anybody, you’re actually encouraging engagement on every level.

To create and engage society, maybe we need to look for solutions that enable people to discover talents and passions, form opinion and develop ways to communicate with each other.

Talking to Cornish producers, as we are on the Dott project we’re working on at the moment, and the local council, we found no lack of passion or willingness to engage from either party. The challenges are no two person’s needs are the same, and that a single, fix-all solution is insufficient. To encourage and sustain change we need to afford people a voice and multiple tools to solve their problems themselves.

Something from Us are a creative team founded
by Mark Irlam and Tom Tobia. They believe that creative thinking can be applied to many challenges and as such are involved in a wide range of projects. They have a wealth of experience creating beautiful, thoughtful interiors, products, graphics, identities and publications. They are a commercial design practice but also believe that design should
be used to develop solutions to social challenges, and do so through visual communication, systems, workshops, collaborations and events.