We’re Five Years Old
Studio Notes | What We’ve Been Up To
It’s hard to believe it, but we’re 5 years old! 2023 has been the most exciting year yet for Context Studio.
This year saw us work with new clients, including National Museum of Ireland, and the HSE, while we continued and completed service design project with Irish Heart Foundation and Dublin City Council.
We were shortlisted for the second time for the IDI awards too, this time for our work with Dublin City Council on the design of a consultation process for Disabled Persons Organisations.
But I’ll admit to being incredibly proud of all the work we’ve done over the past year. This is work which, five years ago I could only dream about, because the opportunity didn’t seem to exist in Ireland.
Slowly, but surely, we’re seeing more awareness of Service Design, and people centred design, and lots more interest in the impact design can bring. The was never more clear than last Wednesday when Minister Paschal Donohoe launched the “Action Plan for Designing Better Public Services” just up the street from us at NCAD.
Even during his speech the minister acknowledged his own journey of understanding from design as aesthetic – or “making things pretty”, to design as solution – making things work well, for people.
That’s the journey we’re on as an economy, and a society, and over past 5 years Context Studio has tried to be part of that shift.
Behind the scenes, it’s been exciting too… we’ve got a bigger team, a new office, and have had lot’s of high’s (and occasional lows!) throughout the year. I’m hugely grateful to all of our clients, to our supporters (they are many) and to everyone who has offered advice and connection over the past five years.
We’re looking forward to the new year in 2024, new exciting projects, and we hope we can continue to deliver provocative examples of design for impact.