THE RESPONSIBLE DESIGN FRAMEWORK — CASE STUDIES Design School Projects compiled by the Conscientious Communicators Research Hub INTRODUCTION ‘Design, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical.’ Victor Papanek – Design for the Real World The Responsible Design Framework Case The following case studies demonstrate Studies have been designed to evidence approaches to exploring ‘the way’ and a developing range of practices within the ‘the why’ of design – seeking to create in LCC Design School and to inspire students environmentally responsible and socially to consider a way to practice design that responsive ways. responds to the eco-social challenges of our time with the skills and values of The projects share common traits, they are: responsible creative citizens. driven by a desire to address challenges; they identify a clear purpose; they utilise While the Responsible Design Framework co-design research, resourceful making, gives guidance for embedding responsible prototyping, circular thinking and approaches and principles within the evaluate the projects as they develop curriculum by clearly identifying this with project partners. explicit/tacit knowledge to students, the case studies highlight student and Above all, these case studies support the staff learning and achievement. These belief that design can be the ‘site of action are projects that have been created and agency to radically transform our with diverse external communities and world,’ (LCC Design School Manifesto). in collaboration with NGO and local They are active and brave – seeking to organisations which reflect the Design explore lesser known subjects, challenge School’s environmental and social the status quo, change behaviour, raise design imperatives. expectation and take creative risk! 1 CONTENTS PROCESS Interrogating and improving the way we design via / 1 Resourceful making: Scrutinising 3 Co-design approaches: Considering medium / material choice and energy use stakeholder-centred, participatory processes 1.1 Access Through Tools Exploring the value of old and new 3.1 Everyday Heroes sustainable mediums A co-designed sustainability exhibition with CSR BNP Paribas 1.2 Natural Colours Printmaking colours extracted 3.2 Melt It! from Nature Student-driven plastic recycling workshops for 3D printing 2 Systems thinking: Analysing reusability, lifespan and waste impact 4 Responsive reactions: Applying and evaluating approaches in response to need 2.1 Waste-Off Challenge Cross UAL creative upcycling and 4.1 1/1 Future in the Making impact reduction Art direction initiative celebrating and sustaining the craft of weaving 2.2 Senegal Design Exchange Intercontinental craft skills-swapping, 4.2 Food for Good enterprise and circular systems A social enterprise start-up for repurposing food waste CONTENTS PURPOSE Investigating and targeting the positive impact of design by / 5 Raising the bar: Educating and inspiring 7 Supporting welfare: Championing causes, others through example enabling inclusivity, nurturing wellbeing 5.1 Infocus (IF) 7.1 A+ (Artefact Eco Editions) A new design and photography agency Student-led publication, championing for socio-documentary green design, illustration and journalism 5.2 Orphans Who Had Parents 7.2 Future Females An educational graphic narrative Gender-orientated spatial design highlighting exploitation for wellbeing 6 Challenging the status quo: Critical 8 Innovating to fix: Attempting to solve and provoking positive change wicked problems 6.1 Inside Out Campaign 8.1 United Nations’ Great Green Wall A campaign against social injustice Communication of a wicked environmental in clothing production solution for the UN 8.2 Whoever Wins We Lose 6.2 Critical Mass Interactive bio-science public engagement Critical campaigning and strategy at the Science Museum for positive change PROCESS — Interrogating and improving the way we design PROCESS 1 Resourceful making — Scrutinising medium / material choice and energy use PROCESS ACCESS THROUGH TOOLS The Access Through Tools exploring and strengthening Festival was a year-long the relationships that emerge pedagogical project exploring between technicians, tutors the construction of knowledge and students. All were invited Images © M. Chai and W. Lee-Warne through design production. It to contribute, from project sought to explore the liberating conception through to delivery. dynamics that emerge between the designer and their means The student team explored, of production. This called for together with associate lecturers an investigation of the tools, and designers, Sophie Demay processes and materials and Ken Kirton, the potential integral to creative making. of building a new hybrid model between a traditional crafts- The title takes its name from based apprenticeship and the ‘Whole Earth Catalog’ a design studio internship. (1968), a proto-internet, print- based cultural phenomenon Some of the tools and processes that sought ‘to make a variety used were screen-printing with of tools accessible to newly- conductive ink, risograph, dispersed counterculture digital interaction, bookmaking, communities’. filmmaking, offset printing, 3D printing, laser-cutting, The festival took shape through letterpress and relief printing. workshops, talks and a pop-up exhibition at LCC – looking There were a lot of components at incidental or speculative to the success of the festival. processes and featuring: Principally the idea of ‘We looked at design in a broad sense Daniel Eatock, James Langdon, independent student learning, first. Looking at the appropriate medium Peter Nencini, Audrey Samson, but also teaching on the New North Press, Peter Bilak, responsibilites of making for creating a design is part of the design Colophon, Daniel Charny and (with limited resources) and process. This calls for a new investigation many others. building a maker-community. Furthermore, the festival’s of the tools, processes and materials integral The project valued non- facilitation of interdisciplinary in the making of a designed artefact.’ hierarchical working across sharing, enabled students to stakeholder roles, wherein the contribute and learn beyond Sophie Demay, Senior Academic Design Lecturer and practitioner interest was geared towards their own projects. PROCESS ‘The Whole Earth Catalog’s ethos inspired the making of the Festival: the creation of a community; the notion of the collective; a common contribution to the same project; a movable, portable structure that could be accessed by many; an engagement with the DIY culture; the importance of making, of inventions, hacks and mistakes.’ Sophie Demay, Senior Academic Design Lecturer and practitioner Images © M. Chai and W. Lee-Warne — If LCC revived the Festival, Courses and collaborators: Sophie would like to collaborate LCC Design School with key staff with a wider range of UAL Sophie Demay and Ken Kirton. colleges and new external Collaborating with Daniel Eatock, organisations to further expand James Langdon, Peter Nencini, Audrey Samson, New North Press, the sense of community Peter Bilak, Colophon, Daniel Charny... between students, technicians — and professional practitioners. Links: Project film: https://vimeo.com/207018730 PROCESS NATURAL COLOURS A project exploring colour ‘cycle of life’, something which originating from nature – has been discarded, composted the creation of natural dyes and is given another life. and paints made from fruits As part of the S*PARK and vegetables from waste ‘Uncertainty Playground’ kitchens and foraged plants. Exhibition (and London Design The materials gathered were Festival) from the Design School inspired and linked to the at LCC, Florence worked with diverse community living at the two Illustration and Visual Elephant & Castle, illustrating Media graduates: Shana cultural flavours (sour, bitter…) Pagano-Lohrey and Laylah telling the story of the original Amarchih in visualising the nutritional usage of the chosen ‘Flavour Garden’ through fruits, vegetables and plants. Images © L. Bush illustrative screen prints on Florence Hawkins, LCC paper. The project’s aim was printmaking technician, has to enhance students’ learning been involved in various through discovery of resources Green Week workshops that within a local proximity and experiment with the extraction engage a wider community. of colours from nature, A particular challenge that collaborating with professional Florence faced during this foragers: Fergus Drennan and project was preserving the paste James Wood, creators of ‘The used, as they do not last as long Foraged Book Project’, to impart as conventional screen-printing their considerable knowledge inks. The results of the colours to staff and students. on paper are never as vibrant Florence and her colleague as synthetic pigment, but when (Barbara Salvadori) have been you overlay them they create dedicated practitioners in a beautiful range of natural applying sustainable methods tones. in their work. She has worked recently with the local Buddhist Café to collect local food waste to be used in her workshops. She relates this to the idea of the PROCESS Images © F. Hawkins and L. Bush — Florence continues to experiment Courses and collaborators: with other materials and iterating LCC Design School and printmaking the process. She instils in her staff. students the importance Collaborating with James Wood of continuously exploring, and Fergus Drennan. questioning and experimenting In conjunction with UAL Green Week, ‘I think that our