Paco: a year in review
In 2019 we have gone a long way in making our design collective a vibrant voice in the social innovation scenery. We have published our own original framework for collaborative workshops, nailed down important projects and put in place initiatives to work more collaboratively along the way.
Here’s what we have being up to in the last 12 months.
❄️ ⛱ 🌰 💮
PARTY’s over, but we are still bubbling with it.
Looking back at several years of work with marginalised communities.
We officially ended this important project last January, after months of work and research with young communities in South Africa and Namibia. A fundamental experience, which coalesced into a toolbook addressed at communities and NGO.
In this booklet we laid down Paco’s own original framework for non-designers and professionals, providing practical insights and tools to work with marginalised communities and to help participants become active agents of change in their environment.
The me, me+, me++ framework is definitely an important milestone of our on-field research practice.
The whole PARTY experience was also documented in an exhibition held in Milan earlier this year.
The global service jam
Design meets fun: for this year Jammilan we partnered with Design Group Italia .
The Jams are non-profit volunteer design marathons organized informally in different cities around the world, to promote service design work culture and methods through a one-day facilitated, hands-on experience working in teams.
Social Economy and Social Enterprise Business Model Canvas.
A project in collaboration with DG GROW, DG JRC of the European Commission.
The Social Economy Canvas is a tool that promotes the generation of innovative, purpose-based ideas, projects and activities. It has been designed to support primarily market oriented activities with social and environmental impact but it is flexible enough to be used in several different contexts.
The idea behind the canvas is that of a multi-dimensional concept of prosperity, equality and happiness. It is aimed at offering policy-makers a wide range of insights and options for the development of policy instruments.
The focus on ideas, projects and activities rather than on organisations is intended to remove the somehow automatic association of Social Economy with particular governance or economic structures and creates the space for a deeper reflection on the role, motivations, purposes and benefits of the different actors that contribute to the development of the idea.
The project is still work in progress, the first prototype will be ready to be tested soon.
International conference of the European Academy of Design “Running with Scissors”
We are proud to have taken part to the 13th International conference of the European Academy of Design “Running with Scissors”, in Dundee. Valentina presented the experience of the international summer school “Atlantic Wonder. Exploring Nature and Design in Madeira island” one of the projects in collaboration between Art & Design Department, Universidade da Madeira and Paco Design Collaborative.
Madeira Atlantic Summer School
An intense programme of 6 full days of work + 2 days of free exploration.
The first days include field research activities and explorations in nature led by local experts. The final part of the programme regards the design of visual narratives and representations about ecosystems, cycles and routes on Madeira Island.
Paco gets digital!
We nailed down the new website for The Design School for Children. Plus we are in process to re-design our own, so, stay tuned for more!
Open Design Afrika
Another talk and this one in South Africa! One of Cape Town’s most dynamic design and innovation events, the Open Design Festival is a 10-day programme packed with activities, projects and workshops.
During the festival, PACO participated as a speaker at the Wetopia Seminar, Cape Town as a Democratic Common , and as a participant at the round table Time of Uncertainty Democracy.
Within the festival, we had the chance to organise a workshop with children in Samora Michel. The workshop focuses on Design Thinking as a tool for eliciting creativity and collaboration among the youngest (Walkabout — Kids as seeds of change Samora Machel activation .)
Confindustria SET project: school and Territory
After signing off the fourth edition and we are now busy working on the fifth. Tune in on our site for more!
About SET
PROGETTO SET — SCUOLA E TERRITORIO is an experimental project promoted by Confindustria Emilia Romagna and the Italian Regional school body, aimed at involving young students into learning paths covering topics like business simulation, design and prototyping.
We were asked by the project coordinators at the Golinelli Foundation to teach and manage the creative process based on Design Thinking methodologies.
We got selected!
It was great to see two of our projects, PARTY and SET featuring in the ADI Design Index 2019. Hats off to our teams!
Kicking off a new future for design
Design Futures: Designers and Makers for better futures is a new two-years project by Erasmus+, aimed at equipping school teachers in different countries with general competence of Design Thinking and Maker Education. We officially got started last October, along with co-partners Tu/E (NL), Designaton Works (NL), Stimmuli (GR), Aristotelio College (GR) and All Grow (RO).
Horizon 2020, here we go again!
Happy to announce that the project “AMAAS — Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture” has passed the selection! 🎉🇪🇺
In the next three years, we will try to find out how Art and Design can help us to understand and address many of our pressing societal challenges.
We are thus gearing up for the new Horizon 2020, to begin next February 2020.
About our project: AMAAS — Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture.
The overall objective of AMASS is to address the marginal positioning of some European societies, groups and communities, the under-representation and power imbalances that exist for arts and arts activities in the peripheries.
AMASS will address societal challenges, such as various forms of exclusion and poverty (cultural poverty through lack of cultural capital, material, educational and skills poverty, as well as poor networks), whilst promoting resilience and inclusion in European regions through the strengthening of insights in ways that will be inclusive of peripheral communities, their specificities and the societal impact of arts and culture practiced by vulnerable groups.
This will not only lead to a more equitable distribution of the benefits of innovation but also to access to arts and the fight against exclusion. PARTNERS: University Of Lapland, Associação De Professores De Expressão E Comunicação Visual, Univerzita Karlova, L-universita Ta’ Malta, Hogskolan I Boras, Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, Paco Design Collaborative, University Of Leeds.
Inspired, together. A new work group
Let’s finish off this review with the more lighthearted, but by no means unimportant, internal meetup “Non tirare il Pac(c)o”.
The initiative calls for all members to gather once a month to discuss about relevant topics and future projects and has become now an unmissable appointment to foster new ideas and collaborations.
The 2019 round up is over, but lots is in the works at the moment. Make sure to visit our website and Facebook page after this run-up to the holidays and get involved in our activities.!!
