After being approached by South London charity SPEAR, the team developed a campaign with the aim to provide those experiencing homelessness with a sense of individuality.
Project Team
Five designers; Ashmina Lamichhane, Ben Irish, Jess Nobrega-Roe, Marina Peters and myself.
The Challenge
During an interview with SPEAR representatives, the team learnt that often those experiencing homelessness have to sacrifice their identity to stay safe. An example being women attempting to appear more masculine to avoid being targeted. Therefore, the challenge was to provide those accessing the SPEAR services with a sense of individuality as well as raising awareness for the charity.
The Solution
A three day campaign where the public were able to donate clothing and compose a message addressed to the individual receiving the garments. This message was embroidered into the clothing as a reminder to the person experiencing homelessness that they are respected and cared for. The clothing was donated to the charity and supported an event organised by SPEAR to dress those accessing the service.
The process of developing the SPEAR campaign.
Interview with a SPEAR representative with lived experience of homelessness.
The Message Tags
The essence of the campaign was the message tags which were distributed at our campaign station. The tags were contained within the publication alongside further information on SPEAR and the campaign itself. As clothing was donated, we encouraged the donor to write a message on the tag which we later embroidered and then secured into the clothing.
The Campaign
Our station was located at Kingston University where we were able to accept clothing donations. While accepting the clothing donations, we also had the opportunity to engage the public in conversation about SPEAR and encourage even those who did not donate clothing to leave messages.
Campaign table set-up.
Clothing Donations
Sharing Back with Stakeholders
Following the campaign, the team presented the outcomes back to SPEAR for them to take further with their own event. The SPEAR event distributed the clothing donations to those experiencing homelessness accessing their services.
