LETS BUILD TOGETHER, BEYOND PAPER & PIXELS By Northumbria University

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Let’s Build Together: Beyond Paper and Pixels Designing a campaign and launch event to recruit volunteers and raise awareness for The Cyrenians, a charity dealing with homelessness in the NE more on: http://www.thecyrenians.org HEI: Northumbria University BA (Hons) Graphic Design Main Partners: The Cyrenians Place: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear Keywords: Social change, community building, intervention

Transcript of LETS BUILD TOGETHER, BEYOND PAPER & PIXELS By Northumbria University

Page 1: LETS BUILD TOGETHER, BEYOND PAPER & PIXELS By Northumbria University

Let’s Build Together: Beyond Paper and PixelsDesigning a campaign and launch event to recruit volunteers and raise awareness for The Cyrenians, a charity dealing with homelessness in the NE

more on: http://www.thecyrenians.org

HEI: Northumbria UniversityBA (Hons) Graphic DesignMain Partners: The CyreniansPlace: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear

Keywords: Social change, community building, intervention

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The context:In 2008 the The Cyrenians received the Queens Award for Volunteers, a prestigious award in recognition of work done by groups of individuals who give their time freely for the benefit of others. In spite of this, the Charity still finds it difficult to attract new volunteers to help in its many services. There are scarce skills that are required across the organisation and a need to attract volunteers who can be relied upon to do what they commit to doing. The aim of this Project is to promote volunteering as something that is worthwhile and rewarding to do, and to raise the Cyrenians profile as a good organisation to volunteer for.

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Click on the icon below to insert one or

more images showing the project…(of people, objects and places)

Add text below to summarise the starting concept and strategy, how did the

project develop? what were some of the key outputs and outcomes?

The Project Response:A campaign entitled ‘Let’s Build Together’ which encouraged the general public to give some of their time and skills to volunteer within the organisation.

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The Project Response:The campaign also included a launch event which used the ethos of ‘Let’s Build Together’ to break the unofficial world record for the world’s largest Cardboard Castle. This would gain lots of publicity and demonstrate what can be achieved when people do work together. Cardboard was chosen to reinforce the stereotypes of ‘rough sleeping’ and a ‘castle’ was chosen to reinforce the message that however ‘grand’ a cardboard house, it will never be a substitute for a home.

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Actor Profile: 2nd Year Graphic Design students, Northumbria University. All students worked in groups (numbered between 3 and 5)

Motivations for involvement (agendas): Project is run as part of the ‘Design in a Social Context’ module run in the 2nd year of the BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree

Contribution to the project (assets): Production of a strategy and campaign to recruit volunteers

The project outcomes for these actors: Awareness of how their ‘design thinking’ can contribute within a social context. Working with dynamic charity, changing stereotypical views. Increased awareness of issues around homelessness and developing a live campaign.

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Actor Profile: The Cyrenians, based in the North east of England

Motivations for involvement (agendas): Increased profile for organisation. Increased numbers of volunteers for the organisation.

Contribution to the project (assets): Participation in teaching process. Providing access to various projects around Newcastle, allowing primary research to take place. Provision of dedicated team to coordinate the campaign and launch.

The project outcomes for these actors: Significant publicity. Increased numbers of volunteers signing up.

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Process usedDuring teaching I used a process method which could be termed ‘A Learning pyramid’. This process describes the steps used by the students and also gives a visual representation of the time spent on each stage.

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Methods used: The students carried out primary research in visits to projects and worked closely with The Cyrenian’s Volunteer coordinator. Extensive secondary research, competitor research, market-place analysis was carried out. Concept development and refinement carried out along with detailed time and resource planning. Implementation was complex and demanded significant commitment.

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Design role: Collaborative exploration of the ‘volunteering landscape’ included ‘barriers and incentives’ analysis. The ‘Design Intervention’ which launched the campaign was a visual articulation of the central theme and took Graphic Design into a new area beyond ‘Paper and Pixels’.

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Key outputs of the project: Live campaign used on posters, website, literature etc. Launch event in central Newcastle. Unofficial world-record broken for largest cardboard castle ever built.

Impact The campaign and launch event generated 89 volunteering applications and the amount of volunteers, and volunteer hours, has jumped up by approx 1,300 hours since the same time last year. Volunteering profile has grown and continues to grow.

In monetary terms, The Cyrenians have done a cost analysis of the effect of the launch campaign and calculated that the project had an equivalent impact to spending £13,850 on Advertising and £41,550 on Public Relations. Total added value of £55,400.

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Learning outcomes:

Students Worked within teams on a live project. Used Design skills to solve problems within the social sector for the first time. Experienced the power of design to move beyond conventional executions to create significant impact.

PartnerGained experience of the design process and how it could be used in problem solving.

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Successes and Shortcomings/ Barriers and Enablers

Key successes included the learning taking place for students and the huge publicity benefits for The Cyrenians.

Key shortcomings included the limited budget to use the campaign as widely as was originally intended.

A key barrier was the necessity for the project development to take place during the student summer holidays. This was overcome by The Cyrenians appointing a key coordinator who organised much of the logistical side of the campaign and launch. He pulled together a team and held meetings throughout the summer to discuss plans.

Key enablers were the attitude, energy and enthusiasm of The Cyrenians and the students involved.

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Appendix