Turning into non-egocentric designers with the PCM Lab: Journey of our Intern

Hi, could you tell us about yourself? 
“My name is Linda, and I am almost at the end of my master’s degree in Product Service System Design at Politecnico di Milano University. Before meeting Ingrid and Sterre, I was in a rather strange phase of life: that stage where you’re finishing your studies, trying to figure out your thesis, and feeling a great deal of uncertainty about what you want to do after graduation. Does this ring a bell?

During my projects for social innovation, as a designer, I imagined myself as the creative mind capable, in a certain sense, of “saving the world”. It seems ambitious, but growing up in a protected academic environment mostly doing idealistic projects only makes you see one side of the medal, right?   

Adding to that, from the Adobe Creative Personalities test, it turns out I am a Visionary so… I think I don’t need to explain any further.”   

Linda’s user journey 

That’s very interesting, so how did you come across the PCM Lab?  

“My encounter with the PCM Lab happened while I was searching for an internship: I wanted to dive into a university research lab to see what the PhD environment was really like and to figure out if it might be sort of my cup of tea after graduation. Plus, I hoped the experience would give me fresh perspectives and new insights to return to my home country to design with a stronger sense of awareness and new values. During my university years, I often worked with the concepts of Participatory Design applied to social realities of the third sector in Milan.   

So, armed with a few trusty keywords and a deep dive into the internet… here I am!” 

We certainly believe in the power of the internet, could you tell us more about your journey at the PCM Lab?  

“During my three months at the PCM Lab, I had the opportunity to work on a project linked to the hot topic of Transition Design. To borrow a phrase Ingrid loved to use, the project could be titled “Sharing lessons learnt from shaping hyper-local transformations and fostering resilient communities”.

My three months at the lab wouldn’t have been the same without Paul de Bruin, a graduate student at TU Delft. Paul always had the patience to listen to my crazy ideas, my frustrations during research that seemed to never conclude, and my endless questions about the Dutch language. 

Together, Paul and I analyzed value-driven projects through the lens of Transition Design to understand the limits and the role of the designer in bottom-up interventions aimed at long-term Social Innovation transitions. Specifically, our study focused on how to design the designer out of his intervention through communing and caring practices.” 

Linda’s placement of a designer in bottom-up interventions  

Wait, take us a step back if the designer is so important for the success of a project! Why would you ever design the designer out of their project?  

Linda’s new outlook: Be contagious with creativity   

“Remember my big, designer-centric dreams at the beginning? Spoiler alert: they were all debunked.

To explain myself better, along with the great satisfaction from the research results, I slowly developed a new awareness that made me rethink the future I had imagined for my designer self and my role in the world. In Transition Design a transition starts with a very small, situated intervention by the designer, but the actual transition (e.g. towards a sustainable future) is a process that takes place over decades. Therefore, the challenge for a transition designer focuses on the beginning of the project, where they must ensure planting the right seeds, working in synergy with the local community, and dreaming together about something that will only become reality many years later. The intervention must be an infrastructural Participatory Design work that can be handed over to the community along with the tools that enable them to strive, generation after generation, toward change. In short, the designer no longer has control and exclusivity over their work; there are no solutions, only small interventions that are part of a much larger system.

I am no longer the sole creative mind capable of saving the world. On one hand, I don’t believe in the statement “everyone can be a designer” but I strongly believe that creativity is “contagious”. And this is exactly my new role in the world as a designer: an “act of care” towards others, where my creativity enables the creativity of communities and their ability to move closer to a better, sustainable future.  

Thank you, Ingrid, Sterre, and Paul, for this wonderful and transformative adventure.”