How the Visual Communication Skills of Graphic Design and Inclusive Design’s Co-Design Methodology can Help Sheltered Workshops Create Viable Business Models
Year: 2015
Editor: Amaresh Chakrabarti, Toshiharu Taura and Yukari Nagai
Author: Cassim, L. F.
Institution: Design Department, Tokyo University of the Arts
Section: Design Creativity Education
Page(s): 251-259
ISBN: 978-1-904670-60-5
Abstract
This paper explores how the visual communication skills of graphic designers aligned to inclusive design methodologies can create new economic, creative and social opportunities for marginalised communities in sheltered workshops. Graphic design has adapted to technological and social changes over time developing into a multi-disciplinary practice with relevance to the commercial, public and non-profit arenas. Allying this flexible design discipline to a structured co-design process as with inclusive design, new forms of socially-responsible graphic design practice can be realised. The paper introduces four collaborative projects from Japan, Croatia and Bosnia which show how designers, the staff and disabled beneficiaries of sheltered workshops worked together to co-design and prototype new portfolios of commercially viable design goods. The paper highlights the potential of a new socially-inclusive approach for graphic design whereby designers and their design partners can have an equal stake in positively changing society.
Keywords: Graphic Design, Inclusive Design, Sheltered Employment, Social Empowerment