Collaborative Consultation
Collaborative Consultation is a design concept communicated to me at a design workshop I attended on Saturday, 16 October 2010, at the State Library as part of the Icograda Design Week. The workshop was facilitated by Paul Hughes from Lava, a design studio in the Netherlands.
The basis of Cooperative Collaboration encourages a design ‘Ecology’ of people designing together in harmony for successful outcomes. Working as a collective rather than as individuals. It has to be a healthy team/relationship to work – similarly an injury to one part of the body affects the whole body, and when one country suffers there is ultimately a knock on affect to the rest of the world. Everyone needs to work collaboratively to succeed.
These working relationships – among individuals, businesses, countries – creates a sense of community, ‘Ecology’.
The business model of Collaborative Consultation has won Lava Best European Design Agency of the Year 2010.
That same Saturday night I bought and watched a Chemical Brothers DVD of their music video clips and interviews between people they worked with and it dawned on me that their collaborations are a great contributing factor to their success as a timeless band.
The Chemical Brothers use a similar technique of ‘co-creation’, as explained by Paul Hughes, of creating something incomplete for someone else to contribute to. They would create a sound/loop and send it to a select musician/song writer/singer to thread their contribution. Sending around this electronic file, reflecting and building up to the most incredible contemporary sounds. These collaborations keep the Chemical Brothers’ sounds fresh and ahead of the rest.
Similarly the collective collaboration of several Brisbane design agencies has resulted in making the Brisbane leg of the 2010 Icograda a successful design week event! Yay Brisbane!
How are you working collaboratively?
Yours in Design,
Amber van Sloten
