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Change Agents

How might you build on the skills, strengths, and aspirations you identified individually to improve your group’s project?

Lauren: I have identified my skills and strengths as a hands-on helper in preparing materials, planning, and executing. My aspirations are to progress this project to the best of our ability of the students and the Brightmoor community. I plan to build on these by continually being engaged and helpful in both my group’s work outside of the classroom and within our interactions with the Brightmoor students. I believe my skills, strengths, and aspirations make my role very flexible. I will continue to help prepare and execute our ongoing fabric projects, as well as providing guidance and clarifications in our group’s presentations and materials.

Christine: I might build on the skills for our group project by continuing to contribute in any way I can with the brand, prototyping, building, interacting, and learning. Some individual strengths I have identified is my ability to brand our product and present to the class and my group a cohesive and understandable feel. I aspire to understand and gain the skillset we are teaching the students for myself. I will create branding materials that will help others understand the information we are conveying.

Alexa: I have identified my strengths as being a leader in hands on work. I hope to use my strengths to push our project in the last few weeks of the semester. It is important that I continue to engage in conversation with the students and bring awareness as to why we are doing each project. I aspire to be flexible within my group, while also leading the students in our final weeks. Overall, I believe it is important for us to work together as a team to give the students a greater understanding of our overall goals. 

Dakota: I identify my strengths as a group member who contributes through research, analysis, ideation, and design and would continue to develop on my focus as a graphic artist and information analyst forming relationships between research done on Brightmoor and Detroit and connecting the research portion of the project to what we do in the classroom. In the classroom, I act more as a moderator for keeping the students interested and engaged in our class projects. I would like to build on making an impact through our projects that correspond to what we’ve learned about the Brightmoor community.

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Brand Identity

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Infographic details

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Key Image

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Infographic

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Group Combined Answers

Through H.U.G, Dakota, Alexa, Christine, and Lauren hope to provide happiness, unity, and growth to the the Brightmoor community. We strive to connect this social impact goal with our visual identity by creating a brand that conveys warmth and comfort through specifically chosen fonts, colors, and graphic styles. We will teach community members how to create products of comfort in order to stay warm in their homes and on the go. In the end, our brand will leave the Brightmoor community with a sense of H.U.G. (happiness, unity, and growth), through product creation and innovation. 

 The majority of modern homes use heating system like a furnace or boiler as the primary temperature regulator for the winter season. However, these heating units on average last between 15 and 30 years. Our audience is the 25% plus of people that have outdated nor non-functional central heating systems in their house. On average, during the winter months, Brightmoor stays around 25 degrees. On top of that, 31.5% of people living in Brightmoor have an income below the poverty level. With these statistics in mind, warmth and comfort are clear problems in the Brightmoor community. 

 Since we solidified our brand and audience, our team has put together a list of outreach channels that we will utilize. Each member on our team already has, Instagram and we can use this platform to promote, engage and inspire those to be a part of H.U.G. We will post instructions on how to build our product, where to buy low-budget materials, and the product indifferent use cases. We also believe word of mouth would be beneficial. My fellow group members and I are all a part of different social circles, clubs, hobbies, and from different places. Our variety in location and interests will allow us to use the power of word of mouth to advertise our product and get our message out.

 Born from this research our project, H.U.G aims to provide the youth with the skills to manipulate fabric and create winter necessities for very little cost. The problem we’ve identified is an issue with infrastructure in the homes, as we are not able to offer a solution that can resolve the issue of a failing heating unit, we are impacting this issue by transferring a skill to a community allowing them to save money on necessities for warmth. These skills we are providing these students with are easy to teach growing and evolving as the techniques spread throughout the community, serving as gifts to relatives and friends spreading happiness and creating a sense of unity. H.U.G (Happiness, Unity and Growth).

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Logo + Color Palette

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Pillow Prototype Step-By-Step

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Tie Pillow Instructions

Step 1: Prep

Have students talk about their interests

Pick/order personalized fleece material

Step 2: Construct Pillow 

     - Lay out 2 pieces of fleece material on top of each other

Simultaneously cut 22x16in. of fleece fabric 

Cut off the dull edges off of fleece

Cut 3x3 (corner) 3x1 (strips) of cardboard for cutting template 

-Make multiple cutting templates (depending on # of students)

      - Use template to cut 3x3 squares in all four corners of 22x16in. of fleece fabric 

      - Use template to cut 3x1in strips around all four sides of 22x16in fabric

      - Tie two pieces pieces of 22x16in fabric together 

      -     Leave a 3in opening in one end for stuffing

Step 3: Stuff Pillow

      -Stuff pillow with stuffing

      -Tie remaining fringe

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The Tie Pillow

The Pillow can provide Brightmoor students with warmth ownership. It can be used in a bus, car, school, home, sleepovers, football games, and other outdoor activities that may need comfort in the winter. Not only does it provide warmth and comfort, but is personalized and gives students a sense of ownership

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Week of November 11

This week we will be focussing on evolving our blanket template to a pillow format. We have planned ahead to add individuality to each pillow by asking out team members about their favorite hobbies, colors, and patterns so that they are able to express themselves through the pillow. We will incorporate ownership by having each group member create their own pillow and be able to keep it when it is complete.

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The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Problem:

Through engagement with the students at Brightmoor, we can see that most if not all students come from a background of financial instability. This uncomfortable position as these students lack ownership, in the sense of they may be sharing their belongings and space with siblings due to the instability and income in Brightmoor, highlighted by Pastor Larry and Reverend Flint. 

We are attempting to socially engage the issues of ownership, comfort, and individuality by teaching these students creative and procedural skills that will allow them to evolve what they’ve learned through reflection, adapt the procedures, and create their projects. 

The Blanket(Quillow)

The first part of our engagement taught the students in our group how to create tie blankets, which allows them to combine two fabric sheets into a warm and comfortable blanket using a simple and unique process. When thinking about this project, we chose the tied edges as a way of bypassing the need for a sewing machine, instead of teaching them a process that can be done with affordable materials that these students probably already have access too.

Project Qualities:

Creativity —working around issues to create a nice blanket without the need of machinery.

Ownership — Having something created by themselves along with the knowledge to repeat this process.

The Pillow

The second part of our engagement is focused on each of our students creating a pillow with patterns they chose. Using a similar process to what they were taught when making the blanket, The students will cut, tie and stuff their own personalized pillow. We plan on guiding them through process by giving them a template, which they will personalize and create, allowing the students to see that they don’t need others help to create something themselves. These pillows will be something that each of our students take home.

Project Qualities:

Adaptability — Adapting our template process to be designed and evolved by the students.

Ownership — Creating something that they will be able to replicate, as well as take home.

Individuality — Expressing their individuality through custom fabrics selected by the students.

The Future

The second part of our engagement is focused on each of our students creating a pillow with patterns they chose. Using a similar process to what they were taught when making the blanket, The students will cut, tie and stuff a personalized pillow of their own. We plan on guiding them through the process by giving them a template, which they will personalize and create, allowing the students to see that they don’t need others to help to create something, they have the power to do it themselves. These pillows will be something that each of our students takes home.

Through the remainder of the project, we plan on focusing on developing our students' sense of:

Ownership

Creativity

Adaptability

Individuality

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How might we…provide comfort in more ways than just warmth? We are curious about the personal lives of the students at Brightmoor. It is awesome that we talk about sports, hobbies, and food but we are struggling to get the students to open up about more personal aspects of their lives. Identifying these aspects will help us to learn more about their comfort levels in various environments. From our research and conversations with the students, our group has found that the students value ownership. For example, during the scooter workshop the students were very excited to be able to keep the scooter once we finished building and decorating it. We think that if we can construct something that provides comfort and that the students can keep, that this will probe conversations leading to learning more about their personal comforts.

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Materials

-All the material/prep needed (we can help order if there is material to be ordered.)

Materials

-2 4x6 feet of fleece (different colors)

-Sew-On Snap Buttons

-Scissors

-Tape measure

-Cardboard cutting templates

-Needles

-String

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Quillow Instructions

The Quillow

The Quillow can provide Brightmoor students with warmth and doubles as a pillow. It can be used in a bus, car, school, home, sleepovers, football games, and other outdoor activities that may need warmth in winter. Not only does it provide warmth and comfort, but is personalized and gives students a sense of ownership

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Instructions on how to make a Quillow

Step 1: Prep

-Have students talk about their interests

-Pick/order personalized fleece material

-Step 2: Construct Blanket

- lay out 2 pieces of fleece material on top of each other

- Simultaneously cut 48x72in. of fleece fabric

- Cut off the dull edges off of fleece

- Cut 4x4 (corner) 4x1 (strips) of cardboard for cutting template

-Make multiple cutting templates (depending on # of students)

- use template to cut 4x4 squares in all four corners of 48x72in. of fleece fabric 

 - use template to cut 4x1in strips around all four sides of 48x72in fabric

 - tie two pieces pieces of 48x72in fabric together

Step 3: Construct Pillow

     - roll up blanket

     - attach sew on snap buttons to bottom of blanket roll

     - attach string

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Probe Walk Through