I am here
In 2007 the RSA and NESTA conceived a competition project called 'Engage!' encouraging social responsibility in young designers. The brief asked students to consider how they could use design to bring about positive change within a community and instigate a project of this nature.
I approached The Frenchay Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre in Bristol to see how I might use design to help in some way. It emerged that all patients suffer from post-traumatic amnesia and experience confusion in their sense of time, place and person. The term for this lost understanding is disorientation, something the unit is responsible for regaining with patients. Through speaking with staff, we established that the process of re-orientation contained some inefficiency and needed addressing. I worked closely with staff to establish an appropriate colour system to bring holistic navigation to the unit, which we could apply to patients' timetables, orientation boards, and the building itself.
The project proved very useful for the unit, who have continued with an improved re-orientation strategy, and particularly enlightening for me and my understanding of design’s potential to help people. This year I was announced as the winner of the 'Engage!' project and received the RSA Design Directions Award for my book entitled 'I am here'.
Project Stills
