Kampala Design Week’s “Design Garage” at Martyr’s University Uganda
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The Design Garage, a project, co-funded by Goethe-Zentrum Kampala’s Small Project Grant, has its mandate to Resource the Community of Designers, students of design, as well as Professionals in various fields of design. As part of Kampala Design Week, the Design Garage intends to achieve these aims through monthly sharing workshops – about sharing thoughts and ideas among designers and entrepreneurs, to grow the greater knowledge and challenge preconceptions. By analyzing current trends, the Design Garage brings them to light for the community to make their own decisions. This achieves a resourcing of the design community, especially in institutions of learning, always with the ultimate principle of “thinking about thinking”!
At the 22nd February, one of Design Garage’s talks was hosted at Martyrs University, Uganda. Charity Mugasha, who handels Andela Uganda’s Talent Development Operations and recruitment of fellows, gave the speech in front of the students.
Connection is Key!
The Design Garage, a project, co-funded by Goethe Zentrum Kampala’s Small Project Grant, has its mandate to Resource the Community of Designers, students of design, as well as Professionals in various fields of design. As part of Kampala Design Week, the Design Garage intends to achieve these aims through monthly sharing workshops – about sharing thoughts and ideas among designers and entrepreneurs, to grow the greater knowledge and challenge preconceptions. By analyzing current trends, the Design Garage brings them to light for the community to make their own decisions. This achieves a resourcing of the design community, especially in institutions of learning, always with the ultimate principle of “thinking about thinking”!
The organizers of this project, Eugene Kavuma, CEO and Co-Founder of Kampala Design Week, and Patricia Atrisia, graduate of FoBE (Faculty Of the Built Environment), the VPOperations and Project Manager of Kampala Design Week, state:
“The business world teaches us to learn the tricks of the trade, and use them to beat the competition and self-prosper. But as design professionals, we have learnt first hand the consequences of short sighted thinking. It leads to non-compatible frameworks: limitations on our ideas and worst, reinvention of the wheel, because someone out there has probably already solved half of your problem. We know that if we do not build a connected design community in Kampala, the creative industry as a whole will never grow to its full potential”
At the 22nd February, one of Design Garage’s talks was hosted at Martyrs University, Uganda. Charity Mugasha, who handels Andela Uganda’s Talent Development Operations and recruitment of fellows, gave the speech in front of the students. Andela is about co-creating opportunity across the continent – a platform to empower youth to own their success using technology. Mugasha, an architect with a degree from the renown Otis College of Art and Design, could visibly inspire the attendant audience, consisting of young designers at the faculty, asking the core-question: “Who are you before the world told you what to be?” and “How to constantly keep a positive mind amidst the oceans of work and critics?”. One of the attendants, Joanita Jacqueline Aguti, reflects:
“The issue of constantly being motivated and empowered in what we do, I realised, lies more in remembering the reason as to why we do the things that we do. And in doing so realising that we should not focus on being perfect in what we do. And rather on enjoying the journey, taking in the experience, and above all, asking for help. How often do we ask questions? How to problem solve? How much are we willing to fail and as such learn from our failings? By asking these questions, we learn to build ourselves and in so doing build our personal brands. Achieving all the above, however, necessitates us to be willing to put ourselves in positions whereby it is okay to fail. In situations where it is fine not to know everything”
Charity Mugasha’s experience – working with different provessionals – could re-iterate the idea of building one’s brand. By sharing her understanding, how she learnt, what she is passionate about, she shared here experience in situations, that enabled her to grow and learn. She inspired the audience in how to find out, where one is good at and which individuals can be identified to help in areas, where one is not best. Sharing the idea of teamwork and commitment, the conversation tackled the issues and dilemmas that affect young Designers and Design Students. Joanita Jacqueline Aguit, the Architect student from the Faculty of Built Environment, sums up:
“It is by talking to people who have walked this path before us that we realise that it is possible and that we can do it. We just have to believe and invest in ourselves”
The organizers of the Design Garage project expect to reach 1000 young designers in 2019 and increase their social and knowledge capital through access to a strong network of their peers, practitioners and mentors. Once the programme has been developed, the content will be directly transferable to a range of new contexts. Their ambition is to expand the programme to a further three countries by the end of 2022, supporting more than 20,000 young designers. The planning for the project (after the test phase) includes a small fee for participation by each designer, which will not only increase commitment but also ensure the programme is self-funding after three initial rounds of backing.
Kampala Design Week exists to connect, equip and engage individuals and institutions to design sustainable solutions for East Africa’s challenges through workshops, exhibitions and lectures/ talks. Given the crucial role that a well resourced labour force can play in growth of the GDP of a country, the Design Garage will be committed to supporting individuals and institution access strong networks with experienced designers and design firms as well as affordable context aware information.
Find out more about Kampala Design Week here.
Interested in applying for Goethe Zentrum Kampala’s Small Project Funding? Find out more here.