We ran a three-week program of research which included a mix of qualitative interviews, creative workshops, and desk research. The aim was to develop an understanding of the current state of service delivery and aspirations for the future.

Using service design to uncover and define a future way of working was a big risk to the City, having never used this approach for a formal review. Our process allowed those who would be impacted to define how change should proceed. Through speaking with 133 people, we developed a comprehensive understanding of what was inhibiting their potential. This led us to broaden our scope from individual roles to new ways of working as a collective.

Apart from the aforementioned detailed report, our outputs also included a powerful visual/journey map (shown in the image below) to communicate how these teams and stakeholders could position the team’s services, how they could deliver those services, as well as how work processes, team structures, and office environments could support these new ways of working.

This work was a platform for change. The design process gave individuals and teams the permission to participate, decide, and then enact the change they wanted to see in their organisation. This transformed a culture of siloed teams into a cohesive multifunctional unit of strategic thinkers and creative professionals. This has enabled widespread coordination of key messaging across all channels tasked with reaching and informing the community.

We started this project with the recognition that what makes individuals and teams work well is a shared understanding of each other's abilities and a common purpose. The knowledge and capacity for change existed within the people themselves.

Key outcomes include:

• Helping the team develop a reputation as strategic thinkers and creative professionals;

• Dialling up internal communications across the organisation, and improving knowledge of the team’s capabilities;

• Enhancing transparency of strategic communication priorities;

• Developing the ability to right-size the work (and response) based on need, complexity, capability, and priority;

• Reinvigorating the use of audience research;

• Developing the case for the team’s early involvement;

• Redefining team structure to reflect the type of work; and

• Developing a new evaluation method based on predetermined success measures.

Throughout the intensive 6-week process in Sydney, we engaged with industry leaders and innovators as well as conservation specialists and Sydney Opera House experts. We also conducted field observations and semi-structured interviews with visitors to the SOH. In addition, we spoke to First Nations Elders who taught us about the Indigenous history of the area.

Embracing our diverse professional backgrounds, we wanted to create a holistic proposal that took into consideration the connection to Country, the political tensions (historic and present), the creative and inclusive potential of SOH, as well as its connection to the surrounding built environment.

Our final design proposal had four strands—

1. The Warrane Walk;We decided to brand the site as part of a bigger whole - The Warrane Walk/The W. 'Warrane' is the Aboriginal word for Sydney Cove as named by the Eora people. We conducted an extensive site analysis as well as qualitative visitor interviews and proposed storytelling elements as part of this journey. 

2. Steps to the Sea;The proposal to extend the boardwalk into the harbour is an hommage to Utzon’s naval background and love for the elements. With respectful consideration of the conservation management plan the steps blend into the boardwalk and open up the peninsula in a whole new way. 

3. Creative Campus; The creative campus consists of three multifunctional creative spaces and an open/free exhibition space. Utilising what, at the time, was a poorly functioning office space, would allow visitors to the House to engage with architecture, arts, engineering, and design in exciting productive ways.

4. The Sun Room;The Sun Room is a subterranean space dedicated to First Nations history and culture. Tubowgule, as the land on which the Opera House stands is known to its Traditional Custodians, the Gadigal, has long been a gathering place for storytelling, ceremony and culture — both pre- and post-colonisation. We wanted to honour that and imagine the space as a way to reclaim parts of the peninsula.

Our team identified that in order for a Nordic corporate bank to be a frontrunner in sustainable finance, a more holistic approach towards sustainability was needed. The process of creating meaningful sustainability and responsibility targets for corporate banking included multiple creative steps and activities. The ideation process consisted of brainstorming, grouping ideas and themes, as well as a literature research. We benchmarked the major industry players in Finland and competitors both within and outside the Nordic markets. Additionally, we reviewed an extensive amount of literature regarding sustainable and responsible finance, investing, industries, businesses and societies in general. This helped us to identify relevant actions and focus areas.

OPCB had identified that they could potentially achieve the biggest sustainability and responsibility impact concentrating on the handprint they create through their clients, instead of emphasising the footprint they create through their own activities.

We delivered a variety of strategic sustainability and responsibility targets, presented in a report, that OPCB could explore in the future. The 16 steps in our strategy proposal can be seen below.

We encouraged OPCB to boldly address issues beyond climate change, such as biodiversity and social issues. The climate crisis is far from solved, however, investments in this area are steadily becoming more and more established, while other areas of sustainability are lacking behind. In short: To call oneself a frontrunner in sustainability requires much more than just climate focus. It requires culture change, divestments from harmful industries, and a willingness to take risks.

I wanted to challenge the field of industrial design and develop an approach through which industrial design students can work with social innovation and women empowerment in countries in the so-called Global South. The fieldwork in this project took place for 4 weeks in Kathmandu and Lamjung, Nepal. During this period I ran workshops on design ideation and development, as well as created a product line with the women. These kinds of innovations recombine existing resources and capabilities to create new functions and meanings.

Adaptability is absolutely fundamental in this type of work. You have to constantly be alert, observant, analysing, and reflecting – and you have to be very conscious of your own profession and position of power. Being in a knowledge-sharing position, while also being a student, was both challenging and exciting. I focused on the process: from idea to finished product, and the skills it takes to get there.

I went to Nepal with ideas for three different products that were all considering waste reduction since environmental sustainability initially was an objective of my project program. Looking at the 10 final products now, I realise that they are somehow the physical result of an ongoing conversation and of the relationship I built with the women. Below you can see some of the products that came out of the project, and which the women continued to produce and sell after I left.

I addition to the product line, I also made a photography book showcasing the visual experience of working with the women in Nepal (see snippet below). Finally, I created a toolkit which is featured next.

When developing my own project I struggled to find material which was tangible and approachable enough as a student without experience working in an emerging economy context. So I decided to make it myself. The Box was never designed to be absolute or finite, but rather as a starting point for students and/or early career professionals.

The Box includes various tools and approaches which can be applied in various fieldwork situations. For example:

• Insights that I learned during my project (accompanied by reflection questions for the user to adapt to their own work)

• A 5-step plan to prepare for fieldwork

• Features of existing projects

• Activity cards

• A workshop plan template

The original vision for this year’s project was to design a sustainable kitchen and dining space for the La Casita Complex, a yet to be completed community and tourism facility in El 20. As the project evolved, this initial vision sharpened, developed and took shape based on the interests, skills and viewpoints of our team. Due to the varying interests and multidisciplinary background of our team, our final vision for the project was to broaden the original idea by working with the kitchen design in a holistic and comprehensive way. This for us meant focusing not solely on the technical arrangement or architectural design, but also incorporating social scientific methods and ways of thinking into the project in a profound way.

We aspired to profoundly understand the underlying needs, hopes and mindsets of the ALM project and the community of El 20. Thus, we found it necessary to focus on what constructs a kitchen in El 20 and how it is built – not only in a material sense but also in the daily life, social interactions and minds of the people. We wanted to collect useful data for the successful designing of the kitchen and for future ALM projects in an ethical way that is fundamentally aligned with the needs of the community. Based on our knowledge and discussions it seemed important to investigate the local food culture and the role of the women in the community as the ones in charge of cooking.

To sum up, our profound goal was to understand the kitchen in El 20 – both as a material and a social construct – and this we did by focusing on food, women and the local community.

The project outcomes were two-fold.

1) We developed architectural plans for the future kitchen building, which is supposed to serve as a kitchen and dining space for cooking and serving food to the young students from the nearby school. The layout of these plans was designed in collaboration with the community by organising cooking sessions, interviews, a workshop, and by visiting different kitchens in the village.

2) We developed a book proposal which would be centred around stories about food traditions in El 20. The data collected for the book was both beneficial for the kitchen design, and as a way of addressing cultural and linguistic preservation (a central issue in the community). It was also important to us that the book showcase the work and contribution of the women in El 20.

My efforts at the company included a complete redesign of all visuals for the digital interface and printed materials, UX design and graphic design.

Designs used on social media as well as the redesigned game visuals shown below.

It is understood that plant-based eating is seen as a bit of a “city trend”, and as such is much less prevalent in rural Finland. We believe this comes from a lack of availability as well as a lack of experience cooking plant-based meals. Therefore, we wanted to make the transition to a more plant-based diet as easy and enjoyable as possible.

This is the reason we would like to introduce a dinner club concept which can be replicated in any and every town and city across Finland.

Around a third of food produced is lost or wasted globally. Global inequality in the food systems leads some countries to have much too much (resulting in waste) and others much too little (leading to hunger and malnutrition).

Meanwhile, eating alone has become increasingly normalised in many Western countries. Eating alone has been found to be linked to mental and physical health issues, such as depression and diabetes. Tackling loneliness, and its subsequent negative health implications, was a major motivation for our concept development.

We wanted to redefine the convenience culture which is currently prevalent in the food industry. If eating green and eating together is convenient, we are sure many more people will consider plant-based diets. This, in turn, will have major environmental benefits, since the meat industry is responsible for extremely unsustainable practices such as deforestation, monoculture and greenhouse gas emissions.