We’re Six Years Old!
Studio Notes | What We’ve Been Up To
by John Lynch, Director
Since 2018, every year, this date rolls around and I almost miss it. 10th of December 2018 is the day Context Studio came into being. Now, celebrating our sixth year, we’ve a lot to reflect on.
This past year we’ve grown from three people to eight. We’ve been shortlisted for a global service design award. We’ve won an IDI Award here in Ireland for our service design work with sustainable energy communities. We’ve moved to a new, bigger office. We’ve added new clients, and we’ve worked with new partners to continue on our mission.
But those are just the things you’d have read about on LinkedIn.
While all that noise was happening, this year the team at Context Studio have been working on some of the most impactful design I’ve had the joy to be involved with in my career.
We’ve applied design to empower communities to decarbonise. We’ve taken a design approach to scaling of meaningful consultation with Disabled Persons Organisations across Dublin City Council. We’ve used qualitative research to help our National Museum better understand their visitor experience. We’ve worked with Institute of Designers in Ireland to shine a light on the economic impact of the vibrant design sector in Ireland. We’ve been working with HSE Digital to bring a patient-centred approach to the development of the new HSE Health App. We’re working with an Irish startup to help them better inform their digital product development through user research. We’re working with a national agency to engage across their organisation and inform a strategy developed for, and with, their staff.
The excellent Jeanette Naughton from Prospero asked me a few months ago – “What would you have said if someone told you in 2018 that you’d be working on this sort of thing?”. I responded, bluntly – “I’d have laughed at them.”
And so, on the pages of these studio notes, the “birthday blog post” has become a bit of a tool for reflection, and recognising what it is we’re doing here at Context Studio, and to whom we owe the opportunity.
Huge thanks must go to our clients, and to all those advocating the design approach for #BetterPublicServices. Gratitude to bodies like the IDI, Creative Ireland, Service Design Ireland, IxDA, The Digital Hub and others who fly the flag for a different, better way to design the way we live our lives.
Ireland has come quite the distance in the past six years. We are beginning to see a national conversation about public service, and design is just beginning to be applied in enhancing the services we experience every day. But there is a long way to go.
The team at Context Studio needs a massive thank you, too. We’ve been incredibly lucky to gather a small group of purpose-driven designers who are applying their talent and energy to wicked problems, largely in the public service. Working in a small business is no pleasure-cruise, and it’s a total privilege to come to work with and learn from these amazing people every day.
We’re looking forward to 2025, to growing our impact, and to sharing in more detail the stories of some of the impactful projects that we’ve been working on for a while. For now though, we’ll be taking a breather over the holidays, and being grateful for the first six years of “Context”.