The ‘I am, we are…different by design’ Diversity Project is a student and staff partnership project within the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, and were offered the opportunity to construct a workshop for Tate Exchange on Saturday 2ndMarch. The team included: Camara, Charlotte, Labiba, Liselot, Malaika, Martha and Seniz. As a team, we are trying to celebrate diversity in our discipline and are passionate about wanting to counterbalance the dominant western canon. Our interpretation of the theme ‘movement’ was focusing on global movement and embracing everyone’s identities. We all have individual identities that reflect our own personal experiences, culture and journeys. Flags represent collective identities, so we wanted our workshop to heavily revolve around representative flags but being aimed at specific personal identities.
Planning and Preparation
Team meeting of finalising all elements and conducting a practice test of the work flow.
Test run of using the heat-press machine.
The Workshop
Our workshop activity was designed with a user-centred approach in order to appeal to people of all demographics. The activity thus entailed the public making their own identity flags, which was a simple but effective task that anyone could do. It also worked well within the timeframe we had and the space constraints. To improve the user experience, we had information sheets explaining what our workshop was about and what to do. However, a key aspect was having our team interact with the public to explain why we were doing this workshop and to spread our message.
The public all in one space creating artwork to express their identities.
The Diversity Team hard at work during the workshop to scan, print and iron the flags artwork onto tote bags.
The Outcome (flag identities made by the public)
Our team were very pleased that we received such positive feedback. We had people of all ages and backgrounds take part, from toddlers to Danish cabinet ministers, creating different interpretations of their own identities. Lots of people expressed that they enjoyed their time and liked the idea of the activity, some people even stayed on the floor for hours. They especially enjoyed being able to take a tote bag home with something on it that they took their time creating. One person even said “I loved all of it. I would definitely do it all over again”, which shows the positive impact it had on some of the public. All the encouraging feedback left our team eager to continue this workshop activity in the following year at the Tate Exchange 2020.
All the flags the public created on the day.
Member of the public with the bag they designed.
