It was a dark, blizzardy July’s night when us content producers set out for the Design4Change Exhibition. Held at the ultracool Vibewire Enterprise Hub, carrot cake, free wine and a stew of vibrant, entrepreneurial ideas quickly warmed us.
The exhibition featured campaigns by Billy Blue students designed to challenge, educate, inform, and engage. Holly Doran’s Stories in a Tea Cup illustrates how sharing a cup of tea with neighbours, can be a great starting point in activating discussion, dialogue, debate and education. Community spirit can be a powerful thing! And really, what's not to like about teacups?
We also loved Sophie Burns' campaign ‘support their soles’. She thought, "rather than just signing a petition, why not make a memorable experience out of it?". Her idea was to create a barefoot flashmob with thousands of dancers in Pitt Street Mall to raise awareness for workers rights.
During the evening we were also lucky enough to hear from Ben Peacock, co-founder of The Republic of Everyone and Matt and Pip, directors of The Loop. Learning about their projects was really motivating, and assured me its okay not to take the generic path in life.
The evening showcased the 3things philosophy, highlighting the significant role that young people can have by using their existing skills and interests to make positive changes in a creative way.
After reading many design briefs on workers rights, I left the evening with a decision to make a conscious effort to boycott sweat shop items, and a little extra carrot cake in my pocket.
Image by our lovely Phoebe Seo.
