START
In 2001 Doctors Earl Fox and Tom O'Toole from The Urban Health Institute (UHI) at Johns Hopkins Medical University came to the Maryland Institute Collage of Art (MICA) to explore mechanisms of involving art and design to medical research. Doctor's Fox and O'Toole were concerned about how Johns Hopkins and the surrounding East Baltimore community failed to understand each other.
CORPUS
It was decided that the graphic design department would be the perfect place to house this important and inspirational delivery system, and I developed an elective studio class that would become THE DESIGN COALITION where students were taught to understand the needs of both communities. To work to budgets and deadlines and produce design solutions whose results would be quantifiable. There would be a before, an intervention, and then an after. This is behavior change design. I developed a the language, strategy and educational model that became the basis for social and behavior-change design. Students spent 16 weeks interacting with community leaders, residents and researchers to produce significant and meaningful solutions.
The course ran for eight years and expanded beyond servicing the needs of The Urban Health Institute, The Bloomberg School of Public Health and the East and West Baltimore Communities. The scope and reach of this class expanded to addressing the needs for many national non-profit organizations. Many graduate graphic design students took this class and produced inspirational projects that made Baltimore more connected.
STRUCTURE
Instructor selects appropriate projects for following semester and secures funds
Instructor links client to community and community organization
Clients and community organizations meet with class and present project
Student and instructor tour community and community organizations
Students present research to instructor on community and research project
Students create design teams and develop creative strategies
Student teams continually meet with clients and community organizations
Students arrange community focus meetings to present design strategies
Student and instructor present final design strategies to client and community organization
Students implement designs for dissemination
THANK YOU
I was fortunate to work with wonderful and inspirational people at Johns Hopkins at both East and West Baltimore communities. I am proud to have been associated with the talented students at MICA who had the courage and conviction to take the class and help communities and organizations. I am proud to have witnessed students coming of age in this class and see them discover that they were no longer students but were professional social responders.
GOODBYE
In 2009 I left the graphic design department at MICA where I had served as co-chair to accept the design chair position at the Minneapolis Institute College of Art (MCAD). Minneapolis and MCAD are positioned to embrace behavior-change design and I look forward to working with this new community.
