STUPID DESIGN Project No 5.strange-troublesome-unbounded-provocative-ill-defined-defendable

Key words: charity organisation, community building, social services

CollaboratorsPercy Hedley Foundation – ABLE 2Design School – First Year Undergraduate Fashion students (and Andy Tennant )METROCENTRE – Largest Retail Shopping Centre in Europe

Context:PHF – Was founded to support children with cerebral palsy

but now also supports children and adults with communication difficulties.ABLE 2 is designed for adult service users some of whom are residents – the majority though access day care

Project:The brief that we eventually settled on, was for service - users to work alongside the students to design garments that will eventually be modelled by the service users at an open to the public fashion show hosted by the Metrocentre in November.

However – of equal importance to PHF was the engagement of the students and how their positive experience could be recorded and used to persuade other external agencies to engage with the service users

Student comments:Thank you for such an amazing opportunity, I really enjoyed the visit to the Percy Hedley foundation, and I'm really exited to work on the project.

Before the visit I was unsure what to expect from the foundation, or how to address and communicate with the service users, if I'm honest, I was a little bit nervous in case I accidentally came across as patronising or offended anybody.

I was particularly inspired by the idea of designing beautiful items that fit with the needs of service users, as no designers appear to consider these. I also found the artwork created by the service users incredibly inspiring, especially their use of bright colours.

After the visit, I am now incredibly exited to work on the project, and collaborate with people with such a different viewpoint and incredible ideas!