NEW WAYS TO COLLABORATE AND FIND COLLABORATION

Based on some of the debates and discussion covered so far, outline a series of ideas that could help you to work in new and more exciting collaborative ways.

• What media and communication platforms could help support this? (This might be to help you collaborate with new design partners, introduce yourself to a new network or culture or area of investigation.)

• Present your ideas as a one minute elevator pitch video (with the aim that you will develop one of those ideas further next week).

THREE WAYS TO IMPROVE OR FIND COLLABORATION: THREE IDEAS

What if we were taught to collaborate? What if at the very beginning of our collegiate educational journey we were encouraged to find ways to learn from and with others outside of our chosen major? 

I was encouraged by my week six workshop challenge conversation with architect and city and urban planner, James Knight. When asked how architecture and graphic design could collaborate to help promote greater community cohesion, he mentioned that when he was in graduate school, the graphic design program students and faculty never presented nor engaged with the architecture program. He believed that as a result, architects were not exposed to the collaborative opportunities with graphic designers. He went on to say that he also didn’t see the medical school and architecture school connecting on how hospitals could be better built to suit the needs of the community. 

This got me thinking… are we doing higher education wrong?

This is a big picture idea. Not only would it help designers like me to work in new and exciting ways, but it could change the way college approaches it’s disciplines, creates curricula, and graduates more cross-platform, interdisciplinary design and system thinkers. One could argue that is what the Liberal Arts is: exposure to loads of courses that touch on a wide array of disciplines. And for undergraduate school, I think that rings true. But when we get to graduate school, the hyper-siloed focus on a singular area of study within a program walls off that interdisciplinary collaborative environment.

Where to begin? 

ENTER THE INTERDISCIPLINARY THUNDERDOME

Bring teams of cross-disciplinary students together around a single issue or problems for a hackathon. Teams would be made up of students of design, social sciences, natural sciences, healthcare, business, and law. They would spend a weekend, a month, a semester or year working together alongside one another collaborating on how to achieve the solution to the problem. The outcome would be for each of the students to learn from one another and evolve their ways of thinking and collaborating. 

An app would be the central piece of technology to get team members signed up and connected around the problem, then employing digital communication tools such as Zoom, Whatsapp, Facetime, Slack, and project management tools such as Trello or ActiveCollab could help folks keep in touch, collaborate and engaged on the assigned project.

CREATIVE MATCHMAKING

This is a pretty-straightforward idea where creatives (designers, writers, editors, videographers, animators, artists, photographers) are able to find projects to collaborate on via an app matching skills interests, backgrounds, desire for diversification, mentorship, education, niche audiences, etc. 

You’d create a profile similar to something like Behance and then list your areas of interests, potential projects for collaboration, and availability. You could set your levels accordingly so that you are getting matched with others that align to your selections.

The app would be the central piece of technology to get matched, then employing digital communication tools such as Zoom, Whatsapp, Facetime, Slack, and project management tools such as Trello or ActiveCollab could help folks keep in touch, collaborate and engage on any given project.

CREATIVE CAUSE

This ideas is similar to creative matchmaking but more narrowly focused on volunteerism and giving back to the community. 

Again, you’d create a profile similar to something like Behance and then list your areas of interests, potential projects for collaboration, and availability. You could set your levels accordingly so that you are getting matched with others that align to your selections

Going a step further, you’d be volunteering for projects that are aggregated in the app by the end user (client, customer, organization, etc.) and partnering with other altruists looking to apply their skills in solving a social issue or provide support for a cause for which they believe in. 

The app would be the central piece of technology to get matched, then employing digital communication tools such as Zoom, Whatsapp, Facetime, Slack, and project management tools such as Trello or ActiveCollab could help folks keep in touch, collaborate and engage on any given project.

ELEVATOR PITCH

The aforementioned ideas have been distilled into an elevator pitch which you can watch below.

REFERENCE

Falmouth University (2018). Approaches and Strategies for Working Today and Delivering Creative Services | Lecture. History and Futures GDE720 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

Mucho (2018) A Conversation with Rob Duncan and Brett Wickers

Butler, A. (2012) David Turner (Turner Duckworth) Interview,DesignBoom [online]. Available at: https://www.designboom.com/design/david-turner-turner-duckworth-interview/