Co-designing for social and labour inclusion

Designing What Is to Come is a project created by IDECART – Institute for Research and Development of Creative Processes and Art Therapy, within the framework of World Design Capital Valencia 2022. It starts from a clear premise: that co-design enables diverse groups at risk of social exclusion to shape opportunities for inclusion. To give form to what lies ahead.

This is how Marc and Pedro, co-founders of Monnou, embarked on this journey together with IDECART, Xavier Giner, and a wide group of professionals specialising in design and art therapy. Designing What Is to Come was carried out in collaboration with several social organisations: Fundación Novaterra, Koopera, Acollida and Fem Salut Mental. We worked with seven different groups through a series of sessions in which participants were supported in designing their own solutions.

Training and teambuilding, before designing

The project actually began to take shape back in 2020, when design and art-therapy professionals were brought together in a process that combined learning with the creation of trust-based relationships. We delivered a training programme that allowed both worlds — design and art therapy — to better understand one another and to go deeper into the dynamics of co-design.

From learning to building meaningful relationships

Each of the seven co-design experiences — encompassing a total of 15 workshops — followed a similar starting point. Understanding where each person comes from, what concerns shape the collective, and simultaneously building bonds of trust among all participants — both co-design facilitators and beneficiaries.

When we speak of learning here, we are not referring to formal training. Facilitators — whether designers or art therapists — do not “teach” the beneficiaries. Rather, they enable a process of mutual learning around the issues that matter most to the group and the possibilities for collective action.

Methods for creative collaboration

The use of a wide range of creative methods — many rooted in artistic practice — also allows people with very different backgrounds to find their own ways of expressing themselves within the group. Each collective worked with different materials and techniques to support creative expression. While textiles were used as a creative medium in Koopera, with Acollida stories about the neighbourhood were shared while walking through key areas. At the same time, some participants experimented with photographic techniques, while others created sculptures during this exploratory phase.

Then comes a moment when everything starts to converge. By sessions six or seven, enough conversations have unfolded to understand where the group wants to go. Some collectives focused on developing “industrial” products, while others opted for communication campaigns. For example, in Koopera, a portfolio of acoustic and decorative products was developed using textile waste received by the company, opening up potential new revenue streams. In one Fundación Novaterra collective — made up mainly of migrant women entrepreneurs — products were created to support the promotion of their businesses. The Fem Salut Mental collective developed a brand through which to run campaigns raising awareness of mental health — a form of cultural activism — producing a series of communication materials using techniques such as screen printing. In Acollida, the focus was on regenerating relationships with the neighbourhood, leading to urban interventions that told the stories of local residents.

Process closures, exhibitions and continuity

Each of these seven social design experiences had its own closure. Its own way of materialising its products. And its own way of communicating them and ending the process. Not all, but some collectives continued their activity by developing and promoting these products once the workshops had ended. One collective held its own open event, in the form of a fair, at the Novaterra Foundation to showcase its process and products.

There was also a collective, unified conclusion to the seven experiences. In November 2022, we closed the process of these 7 experiences of Social Design by means fo the Exhibition at Rector Peset.