11.08.16
Fieldwork Facility
Robin Howie is a London-based designer working under the moniker of Fieldwork Facility. Having studied graphic design at both Kingston University and the Royal College of Art, we picked him up in our first ever graduate showcase, and have been working together ever since.
Unlike many of his peers, Robin engages heavily in the social aspects of design, working closely within communities to execute projects with real human impact, alongside more traditional branding and editorial design. We sat down to find out more about his unorthodox approach, what bees have to do with design, and what he looks for in a prospective client.
You’re clearly interested in the socially conscious side of design and its ability to effect change, is that something that’s always been there for you, or did you learn it through studying?
I think it’s always been there. I’ve certainly always been drawn to the transformative power of design and motivated by what else design can do. I don’t really prescribe to the notion of the designer as a problem solver; sure, finding the solution to a brief at hand is the lion’s share of design work, but I think the role of a designer can transcend that too. Design can initiate and anticipate, it doesn’t just have to react. Design can be the brief as well as the solution, it can even be ecosystem that the two operate in.
I’ve been carrying around this notion for a while that design is a role of citizenship. Before I’m a designer I’m a citizen, but being a citizen doesn’t require me to do anything other than live somewhere. Citizenship however, is a far more interesting idea. Citizenship implies having some sort of proactive role where you live; for me ‘design’ and ‘citizenship’ are very closely related. In my design work I aim to have the most positive impact possible. Not every project will be trying to ‘save the world’ or even be overtly socially conscious, but if you can make a positive contribution through your work even just by leaving something better than how you found it, then that becomes your responsibility.
I’ve always been idealistic, but I should give credit to my undergraduate degree at Kingston. I studied Graphic Design there, but really it was a three-year ideas assault course that completely championed blue sky thinking and the ‘what if’ side of design. I loved it so much there that I return every year as a visiting lecturer.
Through the community design work you’ve done you must meet a lot of people who don’t necessarily buy into design thinking, or haven’t had the budget to ever engage designers. How does the process of working with them differ from your usual clients?
It always starts with dialogue. There’s a bit of an educational element to working with a corner shop or tailors to demonstrate what design can do, but I don’t think this has to be in a top-down way, it’s just part of a wider conversation. It’s just as much an educational experience for me hearing how their small business operates.
To be honest I’ll often start the conversation with the same simple questions that I’d ask a CEO or director of a much larger organisation. It’s about connecting with an organisation on a human level and understanding what makes a client tick, getting them to articulate who they are, what they do and the challenges they’re facing.
I guess where a local shopkeeper might differ though, is not immediately seeing the value of differentiation in their sector, or even in their neighbourhood. If you live and work on your local high street, your frame of reference may be limited by what your direct competition is doing and so by extension that shop might think it’s too risky to do something a little different to their competitors. So along with the conversation you might want to jump in a car and explore some analogous references, or bring samples and designs along so they can start to see there’s other possibly more appropriate ways of doing things.
Projects like Hoe Street or Food for Thought also have a great deal of managing stakeholders too; projects become more like partnerships. For example, if a council is paying for shopfronts to be improved, they will want the best for the business, but they will have their own motivations too. The project might be for a specific shop but it stitches into a wider programme of work. That’s just where you need to be honest and make sure your stitching doesn’t have any invisible seams.
Tell us about The Nest Project and how you came up with the idea for it.
I’m incredibly invested in cities, public spaces and place-making, and while I’m at home in the city, I actually grew up in the countryside and have started to miss some of the elements that aren’t as prevalent in cities; elements that I believe make neighbourhoods nicer places to live and work.
While at the Royal College of Art I had this throwaway idea; a pencil sharpener fashioned as a birdhouse. It sat on my desk, it was fun, but didn’t feel right as a product – too gimmicky – so I put it on the shelf and forgot about it.
Fast forward a few years of living in London and reading about declining bird and bee populations in cities, I wanted to do something. I realised that this little bird-house-pencil-sharpener that had I made could be reverse engineered. Instead of it just being a product to sit on people’s desks and sharpen pencils, it could be a medium to engage people in helping build a real nest for real birds in their own neighbourhoods.
The idea developed that a school, office or home could work in pencil for just a week, when participants sharpen their pencils they are pre-populating a nest with cosy pencil shavings for a future tenant. The Nests are to encourage bird life in our neighbourhoods, but they’re also urban interventions for us, signalling nature’s home in our shared spaces.
Do you feel that the whole conversation about nature conservation has to change, and if so, what’s your role as a designer in doing that?
I find it really interesting spotting the unlikely corners where that conversation is being picked up. For example, I seem to come across bee stories more often in technology or financial publications like WIRED, FastCo or The Economist, which is quite a curious bunch for nature conservation stories. That said, they’re all quite future focussed, so hopefully it’s a barometer of what will soon trickle down to be reported more broadly.
With regards to what role design can play, I think if we can frame the conversation right there’s an opportunity for design to influence what our clients do upstream, then we can help tease out the conversations that need to trickle down. B-Corporations like Warby Parker and Patagonia are massively inspiring in how they thrive while maintaining a social mission. What they do so well I would argue is embrace design thinking at a top level of their business, and that influences how the whole organisation thinks and acts. What if this model was more widely adopted? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a marketplace of brands with social missions, and how might brands have to act competitively not just in business but also in how they do good?
At the other end of the scale we can think about how design might support community-led action. One of my clients at Fieldwork Facility is Oxfordshire’s Low Carbon Hub; they’re a social venture who want to see a massive change in the energy system. They believe in community-owned renewable energy. Low Carbon Hub’s business model allows them to raise funds through community share offers; and we’re not talking jumble sale cash here, their latest share offer for Sandford Hydro raised over £800,000. Through their share offers they fund their own renewable energy projects that benefit the community. When the projects are up and running they pay their investors dividends and then put their profit (and expertise) back into projects that communities have initiated independently.
How much do you try to inject elements from your personal work into commercial projects?
If a natural opportunity comes up then great, but I don’t consciously push for it with existing clients. I do however approach potential project partners for personal projects which is usually, if nothing else, really great for feedback.
This might sound pedantic but I try to not think of projects as ‘personal’ or ‘commercial’; I tend to give ‘personal projects’ a fancy label of being ‘Studio Inquiries.’ I label them like this is because these projects have a purpose of enabling me to investigate an area I’m genuinely interested in, but they also help me explore a different area of design that I’d like to work in more. With that in mind a Studio Inquiry is aimed at pushing on my practice, but it’s also a bit of a commercial stake in the ground too.
I’m very excited about my current Studio Inquiry. I’m attempting to totally rethink the role and service of the newsstand (think along the lines of those rubbish sheds by tube stations that sell papers and magazines). Kiosk has been a slow-burning project for a few years that I’m aiming to finish this year, the re-imagined service of the newsstand is already mapped out, and now I’m working on the design of the newsstand’s architecture and it’s role in the community.
How long have you been working with Represent, and what kind of clients do they get you? What’s the difference between what they offer and other recruiters?
I have a really long relationship with Represent going back almost a decade now. I was picked up in the first year they did a graduate showcase as one of their top 20 graduates in 2007. Since then Mike has been great and given me his time to offer some solid advice over the years.
What I value about Represent is that I know they work really hard to cultivate the right kind of opportunities and candidates. They seem to instinctively know what will make a good fit. For example, I was booked once for four days at IDEO and I enjoyed it so much there that I stayed freelancing part-time for two years. I’ve never had any want or need to try any other UK recruiters.
What do you look for in a client, and what do you think they get from you that’s unique?
I look for clients that want me to get under the skin of their organisation and peer beyond the brief. Working with me I think is perhaps quite personal; I often work independently and most of the time I’ll be the sole contact on a project. I think it must take a lot of trust for a client to enter that scenario. I find the most enjoyable projects are with clients who are brave, collaborative, engaged and encouraging.
In terms of what I think they get from me that’s unique… frankly I can’t believe I’ve never asked myself that! I think it’s about the opportunity to explore making a meaningful impact, working with a designer that brings independent thought and rigorous investigation, with equal measures of idealism and pragmatism.