I met a designer today.
His name is Juma.
He got his training in Belgium as a graphic designer and now works primarily in the Rwanda Health Communications Centre. We both agreed that including some design training into the curriculum here would be beneficial. Apparently, there is a communications department at the National University that could be a good start. He figures he could learn something from me. I told him I imagined I could likely learn more from him.
Printing at Rwanda Health Communications Centre
My meeting with their key spokesperson, Nathan, yielded some interesting insights and information that will help me in planning for any design concepts in our project:
1) Community Health Workers (CHWs) are the people who will have the most impact in transmitting information (even someone from Kigali will be less likely to affect any type of behaviour change or product adoption)
2) The president has just initiated a program that will provide all CHW’s with mobile phones
3) There has yet to be a national campaign focused on nutrition (as other priorities take up the majority of their efforts)
4) People continue to be interested in the relationship between agriculture and nutrition (and how that actually gets measured and monitored)
5) T-shirts and umbrellas that have been used as incentives aren’t necessarily the most long lasting tools so research into what works best for health initiatives will be helpful
6) There are no extra copies of the CHW tools created on file since all of them are already in the field
7) Infant and young children nutrition tools (image below) are apparently developed but are still in the “soft copy” stage (which will help me understand how to work alongside what has already been developed)
I also asked Nathan about the types of visuals that have been successful in other campaigns. It was great to show him the various Sprinkles packaging concepts that have been developed and have him offer suggestions of which ones he felt would be adopted most quickly. Obviously, I’ll set out to design a variety of options to see which will be adopted or preferred.
For me, this was a key meeting and their department is keen to be in touch about the progress and process of our work as some of the information they want takes time to receive in order to message things in a timely manner. I love cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural collaboration. It isn’t a rapid process but offers relevant insight and potential.
Image developed by J&J Top Graphics Designers in Kigali, Rwanda
10 May 2010
14 April 2009
21 March 2009
I went to a conference on global health at UBC today. The last talk by Dr. Shafik Dharamsi had to do with ethics and responsibility. The conversations were relevant and when he showed this documentary film, They Come In The Name Of Helping, I felt like I was watching a video version of my thesis. The dialogue that occurs reflects the concepts I have looked at with the women in Rwanda. It takes a bit to load but is well worth watching.
04 March 2009
A few more images from the field (taken by Lama).
The comments about the camera included: "They asked if they could see what they had taken. I explained to them that it was not digital. They said they wanted to see the pictures after they had been developed." (which they will get eventually)
About the kit: "The kit was practical and handy. If you have a thin waist, some with a larger waist struggled with it. They said it looked odd. I noticed how instead of wearing it on the waist, they walked with it strapped over their shoulder." (these were some of my speculations so this feedback is great)
28 February 2009
Aspirations
This exercise is asking the participant to identify what they need (red dots) versus what they wish they had (green dots). Here is a rough image showing 6 of the 10 responses. The majority of images come from IDEO's HCD Toolkit.
Interestingly, one participant numbered the priority of each. They are hung here in order from number 1 to number 6 in each category. I am not certain as to how she interpreted each image but for my purposes I'm listing them as this:
Needs:
1. Clean water
2. Truck
3. Books/education
4. Shop for amenities
5. Firewood
6. Cell phone
Wants:
1. A better house
2. Tractor
3. Doctor
4. Jerrican (or fuel?)
5. Electricity
6. Computers
I have a lot of thoughts about these images but I'll save writing about them for my actual thesis paper.
27 February 2009
Scenes from the field
Lama took some shots to show what happened when the kits were delivered to the women.
(T-B, L-R: Signing the informed consent form, explaining the research, drawing in the notepad, and using a pencil crayon as a ruler)
26 February 2009
Photographic Dictionary
The Photographic Dictionary is dedicated to defining words through literal, figurative and personal meanings found in each photograph.
Quite an objective! In light of my research, this idea becomes quite intriguing (as I sit with drawings and photographs wondering how exactly to interpret them). In this case of the photographic dictionary, I am interested in two things:
a) What would happen if the text was removed?
b) How does everyone see each image and how could I know this interpretation?
The ideas inherent in this work remind me of the benefits of this.
24 February 2009
Green Gadget
While the focus of my research has shifted away from the talk of green on this continent, I still find myself curious about the form it takes in mass media. As revealed in this recent advertising for the 17" Mac. The strokes are like that of a crayon, which seemingly suggests low-tech and therefore no carbon emissions?
While I'm a Mac lover and value the fact that companies are changing their wayward practices because of climate change etc., I'm struck by how this gets messaged to the public. Organic strokes are seemingly the way to tell someone that something is "more green." Do you notice this?
20 February 2009
16 February 2009
DraWords
In my ongoing quest for the connections and tensions between image and text, I came across this project by Craig Frazier. While humorous, it reminds me of how we each interpret images and text so differently. I type this as I wait for my kits to return, and am ever so curious about the interpretations of the words and images I sent out.
12 February 2009
Less Than $1 A Day
I came across this on my walk home from school.
It struck me how this statement means one thing for the New York Times and something completely other in light of assessing those who must live on this amount.
A documentary series that investigates this further.
31 October 2008
Communication for Sustainable Development
Communication in development is attempting to consider new ways to approach the exchange of information. I appreciate this inquiry after returning from Rwanda where my ideas of the transfer of information had to be weighed when working with another culture.
There is a difference between the transfer of knowledge and the co-creation of knowledge. The first implies a specialist or external agent who is seeking acceptance of his or her way of looking at solving a problem. The second (co-creation), considers stakeholders and their varied or complimentary experiences and knowledge in the outcomes. This becomes pertinent in my research as I consider how a communication designer can enter into the transfer of knowledge "problem" and be helpful (or not) in a culture other than my own. How can one "co-create" in communications where knowledge is typically exchanged with the use of a common language?
(Charts are from the 2005 United Nations Communication for Development Roundtable Report that focused on sustainable development)
