Can you tell a bit more about yourself, your background and your design practice ST-DUO?
ST-DUO, co-founded by Sophie Balch and Tijn de Kok in 2020, emphasises design’s capacity to drive meaningful collaborations. Our projects span cultural, social, political, and environmental issues, aiming to support and empower those working towards making the world a better place. In our practice we merge graphic design, strategy, campaign development and participatory workshops, always prioritising the human element. Driven by our ‘Manifesto for a Better World’ —a document outlining the studio’s ethos— ST-DUO produces identities that embody the right attitude, helping others stand for their work and beliefs. The manifesto identifies five roles ST-DUO deems crucial for navigating challenges and achieving positive impact, for which the studio develops collaborative design methodologies.
What do you wish you had known when you first started as a designer?
Haha, the list of possible answers could easily be endless, but then the process of growth or getting there would be very boring. We do feel, however, that there’s still a massive gap between education and the work field, especially for those wanting to start their own studio or business. It takes time to reach a level of professionalism and it almost seems weird that every designer needs to make the same ‘mistakes’ before reaching a point where they can start —seriously— developing their artistic and professional careers. ‘Clients’ and or institutions use this to their advantage by offering “opportunities” rather than professional assignments. Therefore a lot of designers find themselves doing underpaid work, where they artistically overdeliver creating a disbalance in the field. More support in this stage of our careers would have been of great benefit, knowing to ask for help, or where to find it would have been valuable.
What kind of project would you like to realise in the future, and why?
We love the diversity of projects, and therefore roles or tasks we currently have in our portfolio and the people/organisations we collaborate with. This is something we hold very dearly. Projecting into the future of the studio would mean having very much the same kind of work but with every step or new project, we look to make more impact, on a larger scale for a bigger audience. Until we reach our end goal; #worlddomination 🙂
If you could choose one person for the ultimate collaboration—be it a scientist, artist, philosopher, biologist, designer, politician, or anyone else—who would it be and why?
For us, the ‘ultimate’ collaboration — if it exists — would be together with a human that embodies all 5 personas from our manifesto in one. If still alive, someone in the reigns of Buckminster Fuller (Inventor, Architect, Designer, Philosopher, Sociologist, Writer and whatnot) definitely ticks this box. Someone who’s not afraid to think beyond the restrictions of current societies, and is on the lookout to bring people, culture and needs together over things like profit or self-gain.
We are strong advocates of including the doing part in the process. And urge people to start doing before thinking. Therefore making the process much more active and reflective and far less speculative.— Sophie Balch en Tijn de Kok
At WDE, we believe that design thinking is fundamentally important for finding new solutions to complex societal challenges. How do you see this as a designer?
Design thinking is a strong super-power of the creative community for sure, but in our view,too often this dwells on the thinking aspect of the term, for too long, making it quite narrow. We are strong advocates of including the doing part in the process. And urge people to start doing before thinking. Therefore making the process much more active and reflective and far less speculative. Design thinking is a mindset and approach to problem-solving and innovation anchored around human-centred design. It is a process that challenges assumptions, redefines problems, and encourages innovative solutions. Whilst Design Doing is the practical, hands-on implementation of design ideas. It involves the tangible creation and iteration of prototypes, engaging in the physical act of making. Which is crucial for testing and refining concepts.
Merging the two processes in a non-linear way you create a bridge between conceptualisation and real-world applications that allow for practical testing and refinement in relation to the problem at hand.
Your project Design Thinking ≠ Doing! — A New Way To Grow was part of the Embassy of Inclusive Society during Dutch Design Week 2024. Can you tell us a bit about the project and the phase it’s currently in?
At the beginning of 2021, we partnered with the inclusive dance company Misiconi for a special collaboration: Design Thinking ≠ Doing! Together, we explored how design can add value to inclusive teaching methods within dance practice. By focusing on the making process as a tool to document growth, Design Thinking ≠ Doing! aims to empower both teachers and dancers to explore inclusive ways of education by introducing design to the dance floor.
Misiconi’s dancers form a mixed group of individuals with and without disabilities. In this research, we focused specifically on young adult dancers with intellectual disabilities and/or learning difficulties who are developing their dance talent. Our collaboration with Misiconi involved translating an existing methodology into a toolkit that enables dancers to develop autonomy in their practice while providing insight into their personal growth. Experimentation and collaboration with the dance company and its dancers were essential parts of this process.
The collaboration started with active research (Doing!) rather than (Design) thinking to gain a better understanding of the potential and possibilities of the target group. Through a series of exercises, we asked the dancers to embody themselves into a marker or drawing device of choice, and we explored and experimented with different levels of abstraction and expression. The results and materials created by the dancers gave valuable insights into the target group and fueled the idea of using drawing as a tool to aid conversation and self-reflection.
These results formed the foundation for the second part of our research the “Thinking” aspect. Where together with designers, professors and academics we explored the topic of learning & assessments gaining a better understanding of how we could use the insights, and active method from the first part of the research to create a toolkit containing various tools which aid the dancers to gain autonomy, and visualise their growth processes.
This research is documented in A New Way to Grow, a publication that presents our findings and prototypes for a toolkit designed to help dancers with disabilities document their growth process. The book also includes interviews with experts from the fields of education and design, along with an explanation of Misiconi’s innovative talent development route.
Are there next steps for the project? And if so, what are they?
Currently, we are preparing a new funding application and are in the process of finding new collaborators to continue testing and developing the toolkit on a broader level. We’re also exploring hosting workshops at schools/institutions on the topic of inclusive education.
Why did you choose to participate in this Embassy?
We were selected to participate in the ‘Embassy of Inclusive Design’ by Shay Raviv. Her project ‘Beyond Projects’ was very inspiring for us, and we saw our project fitting the way she was curating the embassy. Dutch Design Week offered us not only exposure and a chance to raise awareness for the topic but also an opportunity to test our ideas & concepts and gain insights from the general public. Which is great for a project that’s still in the research phase. It also sparked a lot of new ideas and opportunities for this project to be applied on a bigger scale.
What tips would you give to educational institutions working with designers on a specific challenge or issue?
Trust the process. Don’t get stuck in the thinking part for too long, take a more active stance and start testing and doing from the get-go. Include everyone, designers and institutions are not what make up the whole game. Get involved and allow for more ‘play’ and ‘making’ in the early parts of a process. Dare to challenge your assumptions. Step away from trying to solve a problem and allow the process to reveal what the actual need is.