Breathing Creativity into Air Quality Design
Exploring ways to design and engage on air quality in education and the community.
With this weeks Clean Air Night coming up and the ongoing Clean Air Living Matters (CALM) project with schools in Reading, we thought it was a good time to reflect on some of the ways that design has played a role in engaging, communicating and immersing students and the community in Air Quality and it’s importance for health and the climate.
1. Create an engaging design language
A creative design workshop was held early on with the cross disciplinary CALM team that enabled all to share ideas, brainstorm options and cluster design intent for the project name, logo and feel. We wanted it to be able to span ages, be fresh and take a positive approach. The wonderful local branding and website agency Feelgood Creative then brought this to life with a number of options, tweaks after feedback (including from teachers) and then the final brand emerged. We love it and it’s been getting great feedback throughout the project.
2. Develop interactive, educational and action based material
The approach included outlining and designing different Air Quality learning and engagement options for schools. From assembly presentation powerpoints, lesson plans and guidance material for air quality monitoring activities. Oh and some stickers for Air Quality CALM explorers! There’s also some great tech for students to use, with hand held and classrom or ourtdoor school based monitors to measure, monitor and map real world local data.
You can see more on these on the Clean Air Living Matters website and also get in touch if you’re a school or teacher or after school club that would be interested in a workshop or assembly.
3. Enhance outreach with takehome activities, community colouring, poster competition and information leaflets.
Alongside in school engagement, the Air Quality programme is also about engaging others at home and in the wider community. So alongside the in school resources and activities, there’s a take home wordsearch, quiz and colouring alongside a colouring in Christmas card (with QR code to direct back to the web site).
The council also ran a poster competition (well done Brianna), that can be downloaded of the council website and is also to be displayed in community places, like libraries.
These all have helped to create more opportunities for conversation sparking at home and other community places and events.
4. Animate for wider communication and bringing learning to life (alongside some of the team)
The creative team expanded with Design Nature and Feelgood Creative working with local video and animation agency Nicely Done and Olly, a Music Producer and Audio Engineer, at Bambino Productions freelancing New Wave Studio. Creating a storyboard, scripts, characters, ‘voice overs’ , backing music and bringing it all together in an informative and engaging animation, narrated by a student from a Reading school and the project experts themselves, scientists, air quality professionals and the council lead.
Do you have any other ideas?
These creative approaches are designed not to just raise awareness, but empower young people and communities to explore ways they can tack action on improving our local air quality.
So from playful activity sheets to dynamic data driven workshops the possibilities are endless when you infuse creativity into social and environmental design and innovation.
What will you create to breathe new life into design for better air quality?
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There’s still time to get in the CALM, Clean Air Living Matters, Exploring Reading schools programme so register your interest to find out more on the councils website as well as be one of the first to find out more about how you can join our next Clean Air Day celebration.