Utilizing designers as problem-solvers. The students of Design Academy, lead by Gijs Bakker , presented the projects they worked on and that were display in the main hall.
Unfortunately due to the somewhat poor audio setup parts of the presentation were unclear. The rather interesting thing was that none of the Design Academy students was Dutch and that gave rather nice insights in how different cultures handle the topic of adult entertainment. In my view there were some interesting ideas but it was mainly a presentation of what you can archive with creativity and out-of-the-box thinking rather that providing an actual solution for the issue.
After the lunch Professor Birgit Mager and her students took the stage and presented the outcome of their Service Design approach. First they presented a confronting movie that gave an insight in the live of the prostitutes. The students also set out toolbag that included a diary, photo camera and a dicataphone, unfortunately no bag made it back.
They presented a proposal for a new service that is a framework aimed at helping the women get out of the environment. The service was build up on a few core-values such as:.
Although the service was a concept it was already very clear and worked out. Of course the details would have to be filled and prototyped. But it looked like it would take very little time and money to actually realize the levenskracht service. Update: Jeff from has posted the levenskracht presentation by stripping it down from the city tv broadcast. Marc is co-founder of 31Volts and helps major private and public organizations to grow by designing services that cultivate a sustainable relationship with customers.
