Part 2: Exploring Tensions

The Love/Hate Tension

In order to define the problem of the research, I couldn’t help but wonder why some designers wrote about feeling this ‘love/hate’ tension in their relationship to design. It came down to the question of, ‘how could you love but also hate something at the same time?’ that had caught my interest. Another insight into the letters were how some had shared personal and disorientating experiences that were quite concerning as it revealed the toxic cultures and systemic issues present in some studio practices. 

For the young designers who were still undertaking their final year of studies, they shared how there have been times where they have felt unsupported by the expectations of the design discipline. This made it harder for some of the young designers to imagine what it would be like, stepping into professional practice due to the lack of support systems for those who were struggling to navigate in this landscape.

While this was all I was able to make sense of from their letters alone, I needed more evidence that would be able to back up my assumptions and interpretations from their writing. This was when I decided to run my first workshop, to capture the conversations that would come out from their letters. By doing this experiment, I was able to acquire new data and pinpoint to particular themes of the conversations.

Agenda

The purpose of this workshop was to dive deeper into each person’s letter, by opening up the conversation of why they had chosen to write a love or a breakup letter. It was also to explore the common theme of the love/hate tensions that was expressed through their writing. By coming together in this space, this gives participants a chance to explain their written letter in detail, while also listening and learning through other people’s stories. 

Aim 
To find what new may emerge, to explore through a series of questions if my assumptions earlier were correct.

Participants
There will be two groups where the workshop will be conducted separately. Group 1 will have a range from young to senior practicing designers. Group 2 will be a group of current university students who are in their final year, doing a design degree.

Materials
Love letters, some markers, paper/sketchbook. 

Activity
The activity of this workshop was to use keywords that would describe back the conversation of each person’s letter. Participants were asked to find other ways of expressing their keywords through drawing methods as part of documenting this workshop. These drawings were a reflection of the conversations that were created in workshop 1, and can be used as artefacts to inspire the design process of this research project.

A Note

Due to the changing landscape of the pandemic, the format of workshop 1 had to be adapted to a remote option which had only affected the participants in group 2. The workshop for the participants in group 1 was conducted face-to-face. Having two different formats meant making some slight adjustments. While these changes didn’t affect how the workshop was meant to be run too much as I was still able to capture data, it did however make me learn a lot about how to have these kinds of conversations in a virtual space. This is something that I have come back to as it is being documented later on in the research.

Group 1 Findings

Key quotes from the participants in group 1 that formed key the themes of the conversations of the workshop:

Emotional connection
“Thinking about design at a relationship level had already is so smart because it makes me think about my emotional connection with it.” 

Duty of care 
"How should we care? Why should others care? Care is for who exactly because some people in the industry arent necessarily interested."

Gatekeeping 
"If you asked what typeface I used, I’ll share it."

Culture
“This idea of not wanting to share resources or perhaps help each other to bring the best of our design work is one of the most disorientating experiences I’ve felt. There isn’t much support and the culture can be horrible making me want to leave the industry. That’s where my love/hate tension really comes from. I love what I do, being a designer, but I can’t stand the environment.”

Design mindfulness
“This idea of doing other things that aren’t related to design work, but like a creative hobby is a way to get your mind to think about other things. Sometimes, this frees up some of the blockages that you’ve had earlier and it's a good way to just take a break from your actual work."

Group 2 Findings

Key quotes from the participants in group 2 that formed key the themes of the conversations of the workshop:

Design can be personal
“We’re in a profession where we are being critiqued all the time.” 

Approval
“The consistent need for approval from design.” 

Uncertainty
“It feels hard to navigate in a space where things are so infinite. I much prefer when they are finite, as I have some sort of control over it.” 

Gatekeeping 
"People never explain how they get there with design or the way they are designing, but they always do. When you sort of see that, you always want to question and hear the story of how — but somehow, that’s only for the teacher to see and not you."

Hobbies are good
“Design was a hobby but not anymore. Not when I’m getting critique for it and that's why being able to do something else is creative, without some monetary value associated with it — allows you to experience that kind of freedom from everything else. Sometimes, it can remind you of why you’re meant to love what you do. So hobbies are good.”

Making Activity

A poster series was created from both workshops as a way to capture the themes of our conversations.

The 5 W’s (Why, What, Where, When, Who)

From running the first workshop, I have been able to make sense of the data and the themes of the conversations into the 5 W’s:

Why should we ‘care’?
Care provides a framework, an alternative response to how might we deal with challenges, tensions and discomforts that come along with design practice. The hypothesis is that if we can find ways to not only practice care alone but together, then we perhaps may be helping the people around us who may be struggling and contribute to creating more caring cultures.

What is care?
Care (at this stage) is being able to make room, to make space, to hold the conversations that are usually sidelined as they are deemed as not relevant, or perhaps have shame associated with it. A key insight into workshop 1 was the clear lack of support systems and interventions to help designers navigate through their own practice.

Where should care exist? 
In workplaces and in design education. If young designers are able to learn these interventions early, then there is an opportunity for them to grow cultures of care in the future ahead.

When is care needed?
There are currently no tools to help support these designs based on the responses of the letters, so that answer is now.

Who is it for? 
Young designers, young design students, design teams, creatives, creative teams. I am also aware that in design practice, there are teams that consist of different roles — this can be applicable to those broader roles as they make up a design team.