Design Justice Network UK
Branding and Media Analysis
The Community Partner
The Design Justice Network (DJN) aims to heal, sustain, and empower the communities they work with. They do so to liberate people from exploitative and oppressive systems. They learn from conversations and meetings with people and colleagues across an intersection of disciplines and activism. Research and social media also help the network to take action. The main goal of the network is to stimulate a conversation around the existing bias within their design practices and develop new methods and approaches that support a just society - one in which power is equally distributed across both the decision-making and the benefits. This begins by focusing on those who are in traditionally marginalized communities. The Design Justice Network: Scotland Node seeks to build the community of diverse people working towards their goal in Scotland and the U.K.
Who was involved in the project and what were the roles?
Our group consisted of Caitlin Klarich, Maggie Tyndall, Alessia Laragione, Rachel Durante, and our fellow, Lauren Kelley. We worked with Leah and Emily, two members of the Design Justice Network in the UK. The group took turns completing different tasks and assignments, dividing the work up evenly, deciding who would present to the partner, and who would take notes. Our fellow played an active role in deciding when meetings would be with our partner and scheduling them.
When and where did the project take place?
We worked on our project via Zoom. Most meetings were just members of our group working on different reports to make the project, but we also were able to meet with our community partner in Glasgow, Scotland via Zoom as well. Having an international community partner was a very cool experience because the work was not just for our community, but for a larger community away from us.
What was the group’s role in the project?
Our group's role in the project was to work with a powerful team like the Design Justice Network to emphasize and help share their story through the media. It is important that their audience and future audience understand their mission and its effects on society. Our main goal was to structure our understanding of the organization into different projects such as a design persona and or infrastructure.
What was your relationship to the community partner and how was that relationship developed over time?
Our relationship definitely became stronger over time. Since the organization is based overseas, it was more challenging to figure out times to meet that accounted for all of our personal schedules as well as the time difference. While other groups did not have to face this challenge to the same extent, when we were able to meet, Emily and Leah were always so positive and passionate, giving us helpful feedback on how to make our projects and assignments better fit to their node and how we could work to meet their common goal. By the end of the project, we definitely came to a better understanding of the personality of the Scotland Node as well as Design Justice as a whole.
Who participated in the design/research process?
Along with our fellow, Lauren, we as a group of four students, worked with Leah and Emily, two members of The Design Justice Network: Scotland Node, in order to successfully collaborate on the project. Throughout the process of creating the design persona for this particular node, we all undertook different sections of the projects in order to successfully collaborate as a team. We also constantly communicated with Emily and Leah, with the help from Lauren, to obtain as much feedback as possible in order to create the best possible project for the node.
What was the collaboration and co-creation process?
During our Zoom meetings on Tuesday, our group would discuss the goal and plan for the week; we would talk about what projects needed to be done, what assignments needed to be completed, and how communication with our community partners is going. We would meet on Thursday to discuss what we had created for the week and talk about our assignment submission. Thursdays were also the days when we met with our community partner via Zoom, typically at 8:00 am. In these meetings, we would typically present what we had been working on in order to gain their feedback and implement it before submitting or finalizing anything.
How was the research/design process determined?
Our process altered week by week, depending on when we were going to be meeting with our community partner. Weeks that we were meeting, we had to do more to prepare for the meeting and usually had more edits to make to our content after the meeting. During weeks without a meeting, we relied heavily on feedback from our fellow and our professor, and were able to take some more time completing edits and breaking up the work.
What were some of the challenges of the research/design process?
We had two challenges while completing this project. One is that our community partner is made up of designers. They have more experience within design, so designing for them was sometimes tricky, because they picked up on a lot of little details in our design that we didn’t necessarily always see. Although being able to work with an international nonprofit was an incredible experience, it was sometimes difficult to get to meet with them due to time differences. This was another challenge, because having more frequent meetings would have allowed us to build more upon the foundation we have created thus far.
Results
What were the project outcomes or the project impact?
Through this project, we were able to collaborate with the Design Justice Network Scotland Node to develop a foundation of the node’s brand identity since they are just starting out. We were able to work with people who think deeply about design and create a design persona and brand identity that not only lines up with the Design Justice Network principles but that also applies them. We were able to create a physical version of the brand identity for Emily and Leah can share as they continue to expand their node to more people, thinkers and designers alike.
Who benefitted from the project?
Throughout this project, our group was able to learn more about design from professional designers. We benefited from working with professionals in design and them giving us tips on how to make our design persona better to fit their ideals for their brand. We had to make changes to our design persona giving us more opportunities to work with design and make edits. Since our partner is so new, our community partner was able to benefit from us because we collaborated with them to develop a foundation for their brand identity. We also laid out a social media guide for them for when they get their social media accounts started. By working with them to get started by finding their brand, they are able to organize their social media platforms and website by having an idea where to start rather than from scratch.
Who was harmed or potentially harmed from it?
Overall, our project went very well and no one was harmed. Toward the beginning, our project was potentially harmed because we were having trouble finding times to meet with our partner with a time that worked for them and for this keeping in mind that they are five hours ahead of us here. When we did meet with them, the meetings were productive and we were able to work well together to know what we wanted to bring to the next meeting.
How does the project live on?
This project can live on while our partner is still forming their brand and continuing to create their platforms. They can look back at our design persona, social media guide, and the media report to continue to form their node among the DJN world. If the partner decides to work with Beautiful Social again, the new group can use what we made for them to start their website or Instagram using the fonts and colors we have already picked out for them, along with the brand traits, voice, and personality we were able to lay out.