1. Let’s Build Together: Beyond Paper and Pixels
Designing a campaign and launch event to recruit volunteers and raise
awareness for The Cyrenians, a charity dealing with homelessness in the NE
more on: http://www.thecyrenians.org
HEI: Northumbria University
BA (Hons) Graphic Design
Main Partners: The Cyrenians
Place: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear
Keywords: Social change, community building, intervention

2. The context:
In 2008 the The Cyrenians received the Queens Award for
Volunteers, a prestigious award in recognition of work done by
groups of individuals who give their time freely for the benefit of
others. In spite of this, the Charity still finds it difficult to attract new
volunteers to help in its many services. There are scarce skills that
are required across the organisation and a need to attract
volunteers who can be relied upon to do what they commit to
doing. The aim of this Project is to promote volunteering as
something that is worthwhile and rewarding to do, and to raise the
Cyrenians profile as a good organisation to volunteer for.

3. Click on the icon below to insert one or
more images showing the project…
(of people, objects and places)
Add text below to summarise the starting
concept and strategy, how did the
project develop? what were some of the
key outputs and outcomes?
The Project Response:
A campaign entitled ‘Let’s Build Together’ which encouraged
the general public to give some of their time and skills to
volunteer within the organisation.

4. The Project Response:
The campaign also included a launch event which used the ethos
of ‘Let’s Build Together’ to break the unofficial world record for the
world’s largest Cardboard Castle. This would gain lots of publicity
and demonstrate what can be achieved when people do work
together. Cardboard was chosen to reinforce the stereotypes of
‘rough sleeping’ and a ‘castle’ was chosen to reinforce the
message that however ‘grand’ a cardboard house, it will never be
a substitute for a home.

5. Actor Profile:
2nd
Year Graphic Design students, Northumbria University. All
students worked in groups (numbered between 3 and 5)
Motivations for involvement (agendas):
Project is run as part of the ‘Design in a Social Context’ module
run in the 2nd
year of the BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree
Contribution to the project (assets):
Production of a strategy and campaign to recruit volunteers
The project outcomes for these actors:
Awareness of how their ‘design thinking’ can contribute within a
social context. Working with dynamic charity, changing
stereotypical views. Increased awareness of issues around
homelessness and developing a live campaign.

6. Actor Profile:
The Cyrenians, based in the North east of England
Motivations for involvement (agendas):
Increased profile for organisation. Increased numbers of
volunteers for the organisation.
Contribution to the project (assets):
Participation in teaching process. Providing access to various
projects around Newcastle, allowing primary research to take
place. Provision of dedicated team to coordinate the campaign
and launch.
The project outcomes for these actors:
Significant publicity. Increased numbers of volunteers signing up.

7. Process used
During teaching I used a process method which could be termed
‘A Learning pyramid’. This process describes the steps used by the
students and also gives a visual representation of the time spent on
each stage.

8. Methods used:
The students carried out primary research in visits to projects and
worked closely with The Cyrenian’s Volunteer coordinator. Extensive
secondary research, competitor research, market-place analysis was
carried out. Concept development and refinement carried out along
with detailed time and resource planning. Implementation was
complex and demanded significant commitment.

9. Design role:
Collaborative exploration of the ‘volunteering landscape’ included
‘barriers and incentives’ analysis. The ‘Design Intervention’ which
launched the campaign was a visual articulation of the central theme
and took Graphic Design into a new area beyond ‘Paper and Pixels’.

10. Key outputs of the project:
Live campaign used on posters, website, literature etc. Launch event
in central Newcastle. Unofficial world-record broken for largest
cardboard castle ever built.
Impact
The campaign and launch event generated 89 volunteering
applications and the amount of volunteers, and volunteer hours, has
jumped up by approx 1,300 hours since the same time last year.
Volunteering profile has grown and continues to grow.
In monetary terms, The Cyrenians have done a cost analysis of the
effect of the launch campaign and calculated that the project had an
equivalent impact to spending £13,850 on Advertising and £41,550
on Public Relations. Total added value of £55,400.

11. Learning outcomes:
Students
Worked within teams on a live project. Used Design skills to solve
problems within the social sector for the first time. Experienced the
power of design to move beyond conventional executions to create
significant impact.
Partner
Gained experience of the design process and how it could be used in
problem solving.

12. Successes and Shortcomings/ Barriers and Enablers
Key successes included the learning taking place for students and
the huge publicity benefits for The Cyrenians.
Key shortcomings included the limited budget to use the campaign
as widely as was originally intended.
A key barrier was the necessity for the project development to take
place during the student summer holidays. This was overcome by
The Cyrenians appointing a key coordinator who organised much of
the logistical side of the campaign and launch. He pulled together a
team and held meetings throughout the summer to discuss plans.
Key enablers were the attitude, energy and enthusiasm of The
Cyrenians and the students involved.

13. Appendix