Now is an important and exciting time to get involved with AIGA Raleigh’s Design for Good movement. AIGA Raleigh is hosting The Window Project, a challenge to effect positive social change in your immediate surroundings through creative thought. It’s meant to encourage everyone in the creative community to take a more active role in confronting the social needs of our neighborhoods. Here are a few things to consider when getting involved with The Window Project.

“In the deeply personal, comes the universal.”

– Ravi Naidoo, Interactive Africa

Why focus on such a small scale?

By choosing a place that you interact with daily, you’ll feel a greater appreciation and love for the opportunities you identify. In turn, your solution will carry a greater significance and will hold the potential to spark bigger ideas for future projects.

How to get started.

Take a look outside your window, step out into your backyard or take a stroll down your street. Imagine what you would change about your immediate environment if you could. Think about how others interact with your surroundings and some of the challenges your neighborhood faces. How could the power of design enhance the world around you?

With all Design for Good projects, it’s important to remember how we judge the impact of our work. When developing this project, ask yourself if your solution has the ability to do the following:

• Express the essence
• Create emotional impact
• Deliver the gift of delight
• Compel people to think
• Inspire people to act*

Gaining Insight

In our effort to improve the Triangle community and to gain awareness surrounding the Design for Good initiative, make sure to record your approach. Here are some forms your documented process might take:

Before and After:
Photograph your outcome by demonstrating how people interact with your solution both before and after you implement your design.

Proposals:
You may find that your solution is much more complex than you can handle individually. Draw up a proposal of what you would like to instill in your community and it may just inspire others to join you.

Maps:
Mapping out areas allow you to see the bigger picture and to see how spaces are interacting on a grander scale. Map out how you might change the layout of your community to express the end result you hope to achieve.

Questions:
Your resolution may be as simple as posing the right questions to the right people. As you question your surroundings, think about whom you would need to contact to find the answers. Simple research on issues in your neighborhood may be your final outcome.

Help enhance your community through The Window Project and don’t forget to share your process along the way. Use AIGA Raleigh’s social media outlets as a platform to share your experience and your work. When posting on twitter, please use: #dgAIGA and @aigaraleigh.

If you have questions or would like to share your story, please contact dfg@raleigh.aiga.org.

*Taken from the Universal Design Brief written by Susana Rodriguez de Tembleque of SYPartners.