Transnational Co-creativity
Staging, making and re-purposing experiences with Joe Public, from Addis-Ababa, Nairobi to Drury Lane.
I was at Zizzi’s 02 Finchley London with my family a few weekends ago. I could not help but imagine how the ambience might have been co-creatively pulled together, seamlessly.
I had never tried slow cooked lamb shank with puy lentils. I was in an exploratory mood. Washing it down with water It was one of the best hearty meals I have had in a restaurant in a while. With our chatty daughter ‘s conversation bring oiled by mum it was a pleasant evening out.
That the co-creation of Zizzi’s seasonal menus might have used the ‘sense and sensibility’ of many subtle minded creators to engage Joe Public with food brought a smile to my mind.
The creators I imagine are many collaborating by design or in-spite of design. They range from Swedish born and Spanish bred illustrator Sarah Gelfgren, through Brown Studio’s design team to Executive Chef, Angelo Garofalo. Their colleagues in marketing, service products, food Innovation, digital branding and creative direction are likely to all be in on the act. I can only speculate.
I continue to find that outcomes are only as good as modes by which co-creative practice is facilitated, either explicitly or implicitly. I think most people who have had the privilege of participating, collaboratively building to think whilst observing ideas (being brewed) becoming valuable to people outside of themselves can feel re-directed.
What value is co-creativity bringing to transnational collaboration?
By co-design (co-creativity is used in the same context) I mean activities bridging thinking with making, Joe Public influenced and validated sessions. And value chain management, with collaborative, open and creative mind-sets.
The benefits of co-creation as a means to develop re-directive and self-realizing enterprising practices is emerging.
I wondered what two of my colleagues were thinking in terms of understanding and developing modes of facilitating co-creative practice?
Here are their views in different contexts:
Co-design as a knowledge exchange tool @ London Fusion.
“Co-design is all about knowledge exchange (KE). This occurs across several stages of the co-design process. Firstly KE is an essential ingredient of the co-design process. Designers who are facilitating co-design activities and workshops have the hard task of building an environment that facilitates trusts and encourages sharing and creative co-exploration of the values, aspirations and ideas of co-designers.
Therefore KE occurs in the first instance between co-designers (co-design workshop participants). Typically this occurs firstly in small groups of three to five participants and then the common values of such a small group is shared along with the entire co-design workshop cohort. On top of that KE occurs between the participants and facilitators of the co-design workshop/activities.
This is a truly two-way communication process as the co-design facilitators (designers) acquire new, specialised and often unique knowledge from the diverse expert areas that co-design workshop participants come from and vice-versa. In terms of academic research this is an invaluable element as getting such in-depth insight is often hard to realised with traditional research methods.
In terms of product and service design this is equally critically as teasing out these small nuances that co-design activities offer are pivotal for innovation.
Dr. Emmanuel Tsekleves — Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions @ Imagination Lancaster (partner, London Fusion Project)
Co-creative collaboration between Value Added in Africa (VAA) and Meru Herbs, Nairobi.
“Meru Herbs is a cooperative of 600 farmers in rural Kenya. They don’t just grow great fruit and herbs — they also turn them into delicious jams, herbal teas and sauces and export them to Italy and Japan. In the process they create jobs, stimulate the local economy and raise the standard of living of their members.
VAA and Meru collaborated together with Zeus Creative.ie in developing a new brand identity and packaging for Meru’s products. Through email, Skype and face-to-face meetings the three organisations worked together in giving Meru a vibrant new look that has been successful in attracting new buyers. After extensive consultation with Meru on its product, organisation and proposition, Zeus developed five potential concepts for the range.
VAA carried out market research among Irish and UK consumers. This information was used to inform Meru’s selection of the concept. A professional copywriter from a global brand was involved to advise on the wording on the pack. Because it is Meru’s business that will gain or lose through the new designs, they remained the key decision maker throughout the process.
The bigger change was not just the exciting new look to Meru and the sales that helped them achieve, but that Meru’s leaders changed the way they think about Meru. Now they see themselves as not just a food factory, but as a brand.
And you can now enjoy the taste of Meru. Meru’s sauces are already distributed in
the UK by JTS, Scotland, and Simply Wild in Ireland, and an English company is soon to announce that it will be distributing Meru’s organic herbal teas”
Conall O’ Caoimh, CEO Value Added in Africa, Dublin.
I see the significance of both Emmanuel and Conall’s thinking and approach to transnational co-product development. I would suggest both are central to the acceleration of deep investigation during projects, stimulating absorptive capacity and creative mapping of user habits for local and export markets. From a personal development perspective we may be unaware that we are navigating self transformative paths through internationally connected activities.
I see ideation networks building on a body of shared knowledge and experience. I would suggest this process has implications for value chain construction, how we recognise and nuture absorptive capacity. In my view they are critical to consumer oriented production.
As we see with Meru Herbs and VAA’s collaboration, the process stimulates SME growth, develops value chains (and skill-sets within them) around local economies whilst increasing export-trade. Meru Herbs is being structured to appeal to international investors who will engage with value created for Joe Public (internationally and locally), in multiple ways.
Oliberte, Addis Ababa.
For trendy shoe aficionados reading this piece who love the idea of “sustainable lifestyle brand supporting workers’ rights in sub-Saharan Africa”, you might become curious about product development broadly speaking at Oliberte.
Oliberte is an interesting example of a Canadian Ethiopian business where vertical integration, employee, customer and product care cycle are key to how Joe Public interacts with its range of footwear and after-care service, offered from Addis Ababa.
As an emerging quality crafted footwear brand it is resonating with an international audience, who really care about what goes on behind the scenes. Inspiration is taken beyond Ethiopia and Canada to paint a trending new language for products inspired by or made in African places where adaptive specialist making or produce culture skills are located.
And Willy Wonka at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
I took time out this Bank holiday with my family to see a musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Whilst reading the book we were in stitches, as the peculiar way Roald Dahl told the story unfolded chapter by chapter.
We were taken to Willy ~Wonka’s Chocolate Factory , with an imaginative adoption of theatre technology, by the transnational alchemists Sam Mendes sorrounded himself with. They include marketing directors Joe Public, American songwriters, Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman through Scottish playwright David Greig, Choreographer Peter Darling, illustrator Quentin Blake (both English), Glasgow based Puppet Designer Jamie Harrison to Darwin born Set and Costume Designer, Mark Thompson.
The aim clearly was to astonish Joe Public with worlds that feel physically and emotionally surreal. The creative team of show-makers: directors, producers, designers, artists, production, actors, actresses and a responsive Joe Public are succeeding in my opinion.
Take home…
In many ways co-creative approaches are a departure from the way things are typically done with traditional creative projects where Joe Public’s complex needs, motivations and behaviour patterns are presumed by “genius designers”. The consistent theme here is about multi-disciplinary collaboration with consumer participation or influence. How we share knowledge about people’s needs and design participatory projects is a recurring theme.
It is an approach that can be viewed as an institutional capacity-building effort. It requires different kind of research, imaginative interpretative skills, mind-sets, value-chains and participatory roles to engage with end-users in immersive ways.
…for “made in Africa” @ Africa Rising 2014.
I am delighted to have been invited to contribute to a panel — “made in Africa” — discussion @ Africa Rising 2014 conference holding in Liverpool, June 13. In some ways this is a reflective piece around which to base an audience engaging discussion with colleagues on the panel. How to imaginatively, use a short window during a team panel discussion to, elicit considered responses or reactions from the audience is curiously on my mind.
“Europe still has lots to learn. A French friend recently attended a Californian reception packed with brilliant French engineers working in Silicon Valley. He came home thinking: “What would it take to bring those people back to France?” That’s the sort of question Europeans need to ask: how to convert their wonderful idea networks into Apples and Googles? London, Europe’s de facto business capital, with its budding tech sector, may be finding an answer. If it does, the rest of the continent will try to copy it, because non-stop cross-border learning is still the secret of Europe’s success.”
Simon Kuper writing in FT Weekend Magazine — “Why Europe Works”. May 23 2014.
This is a theme (which applies as much to intra European idea networks as it does transnational idea networks between Africa, advancing and advanced economies)I will share with the audience and colleagues at “made in Africa” panel discussion: developing projects that empower cultural institutions, producers and manufacturers to form commercially viable partnerships that are responsive to the needs and interests of Joe Public (local or international).
“When people move, ideas move with them. Then ideas born far apart collide.” — Sachin Kumar Badkas
