Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Networking: 5:30pm to 6pm | Seminar: 6pm to 7:30pm
The doors will be locked after 6pm!

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Session abstract

In early 2009, Kara Pecknold, then a student at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, took an internship with a women’s cooperative in Rwanda. Her task was to develop a Web site to connect rural Rwandan weavers with the world. Pecknold soon discovered that the weavers had little or no access to computers and the Internet. Rather than ask them to maintain a Web site, she reframed the brief, broadening it to ask what services could be provided to the community to help them improve their livelihoods. Pecknold used various design thinking techniques, drawing partly from her training and partly from Ideo’s Human Centered Design toolkit, to understand the women’s aspirations.

Because Pecknold didn’t speak the women’s language, she asked them to document their lives and aspirations with a camera and draw pictures that expressed what success looked like in their community. Through these activities, the women were able to see for themselves what was important and valuable, rather than having an outsider make those assumptions for them. During the project, Pecknold also provided each participant with the equivalent of a day’s wages (500 francs, or roughly $1) to see what each person did with the money. Doing this gave her further insight into the people’s lives and aspirations. Meanwhile, the women found that a mere 500 francs a day could be a significant, life-changing sum. This visualization process helped both Pecknold and the women prioritize their planning for the community.

Kara will be speaking to VanUE about the experience of working as a designer in a cross-cultural context, how she navigated language and technology barriers and how this relates to her work now. Please join us as Kara shares video footage from Rwanda and interactively demonstrates the process she went through. As we live in a cross-cultural world and city, Kara suggests that her experience wasn’t just about designing in Rwanda but rather one example of working within a global economy.

Then join us for networking after!

Our speaker

Kara Pecknold has a graduate degree in Design and her research is presented as a case study in IDEO’s Human-Centered Design Toolkit. She is a graduate member of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada and has joined the Designer’s Accord.

Kara is currently working as a design researcher at Emily Carr University with a focus on design and health care. Under the name of Olivelife Creative, she has worked on freelance projects in design, writing and photography.

Location: VFS (Vancouver Film School)

The VFS Digital Design campus is located at 420 Homer Street between Pender and W. Hastings. Enter through the side door on the east side of Homer Street. The event will take place in Theatre 1 accessible from the main foyer.

Our Sponsors

Location Sponsor: VFS
VFS has been supporting VanUE since our inception and we would like to thank them for their continued generosity!!