During lockdown we had heard from many young people that they wanted something purposeful to do and create during lockdown. By them and through partnership with Grand Union Arts in Brum, the Young Persons Design Company project was created, thanks to funding from the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner. One of the young designers collaborating on the project, Millie Brown, tells us all about her experience below.
The Bearwood Young Person's Design Company is a free design and business skills workshop programme that myself and four other members decided to take part in, all of us between the ages of 16 and 18. This opportunity was too good to miss, we all sprung at the chance to develop our creative and business skills, both individually, and as a team.
Already, we have taken part in several workshops over zoom, at the park and in a studio. In what has been a very challenging, restrictive and uncertain time, this course has provided a safe and comfortable environment for us to learn, grow and create.
Before starting our workshops, we met up at a local park (physically distanced of course) so that we could meet each other before the course started. Instantly, we all clicked and sat for several hours talking as if we had known each other for years. Leaving this, I was so excited to get started.
Our first workshop took place over zoom – Amerah led us on several activities to get to know the way we each work so that we knew the best ways to approach collaborative practice in our company. We left this workshop with a set of boundaries and rules to ensure that, as a team, we could be successful and make sure all participants felt valued.
Sarah led the second workshop, which was very exciting. Together we bounced ideas off each other and made a very large list of possible products to work on. In this session, we realised we wanted to create an ethical product, that was both trendy and unique.
The next workshop was led by Janet – we got to see some of her products and learnt how to mind-map certain ideas to make sure we were considering every aspect of a product before designing it. We planned that, once restrictions eased, we would go to Janet's workshop to have a practical session. In this workshop, we learnt how to make hand warmers and a universal pouch on the sewing machines (and we ate lots of pizza too)! We left feeling enthusiastic to get started on our product creation and had a much better idea about our product after a hands-on, practical workshop. We felt safe and comfortable throughout the entire workshop.
Before our practical workshop, we had an online session with Keith, who gave us an introduction to brand identity and showcased some awesome examples. We left this workshop with lots of things to consider.
Finally, our most recent workshop was with Sarah again, we completed some exercises to get our creative juices flowing and created some fabulous ideas to take into our next design phase.
We cannot wait for our next workshop and to get our product made and released in the coming weeks.
To stay posted, follow our Instagram page that we are currently in the process of preparing! @bearwood_design_company
With thanks to the funders of this project.