What makes you good at what you do?

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I love organisation! It verges on obsession.

Whether it's information or interiors, I thoroughly enjoy reorganising things into more functional and enjoyable experiences which is essentially the purpose of good design.

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I've always loved learning, particularly when I was living in Jamaica. But when I came back to the UK, I found learning more stressful and I've been on a journey to find my own way of learning ever since.

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What's been your biggest learning curve so far?

 

Initially my work was dedicated to helping people establish more positive perceptions of self, until the emphasis being almost entirely on self-work made me feel uncomfortable.

 

I realised that so many of our internalised perceptions are caused by external factors which can't be rubbed away by self-work, such as trauma, social constructs, and oppressive political systems.

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As I began to educate myself on such things I realised

1. I had to draw everything to understand it

2. Every topic led to a larger root issue

3. It was impossible for me to learn as quickly as my heart wanted to with the way information was being presented.

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So I set myself the goal to work directly with the experts to convert how they were presenting their impact-driven concepts, into creative accessible resources. The simple idea being that if we could help the audience's speed of learning by cutting their processing time in half, we could accelerate together much faster towards the bigger impact-driven mission.​​

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What are the key barriers to your work?

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1. Everyone is experiencing information overload which makes it understandably more difficult for anyone to hold an open space in their minds for your message.

2. Inviting members of the target audience to take part in the co-production of the project relies on a personable connection between the expert and their target audience.

3. The prioritisation of speed and numbers over impact and quality creates limitations to the process and ultimately the outcome.

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What's your favourite projects to work on?

 

My favourite projects have members of the target audience involved in the creative process from ideation to delivery and post-development. Supporting them to practice active learning, reflection, engage in discussions and as a means of play, discovery and upskilling.​

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What's the proudest project you've worked on?

 

My proudest project was with NHS England and Peer Power Youth Charity where we converted their abstract concept exploring what healthy living means to young people living in a secure children's home, into a series of creative reflection workshops using the wheel of life as a tool, which was then translated into a mural, and finally into an activity book for staff to continue facilitating those conversations with new residents!

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