D E S I G N P R O J E C T P R O P O S A L

BEATS magazine

N e w c o m e r Y o u t h P r e s p e c t i v e s + V o i c e

J E N N I F E R S A R K A R

C O N T E N T

1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 2.0 DESIGN PROPOSAL 4 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 5-8 2.2 DESIGN OPPORTUNITY 9 2.3 DESIGN OBJECTIVES 10 2.4 DESIGN CRITERIA 11-13 SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS 14-16

3.0 USER PROFILE 17-19

GANTT CHART 20

BUDGET 21

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 22-25

4.0 CONCEPT SKETCHES (See separate booklet in the envelope)

E x e c u t i v e S u m m a r y

This paper is a forth year Communication Design graduation project proposal. The paper goes through various researches involving immigrant and refugee youth and their initial struggles in the city of Van-couver. Through this paper I will be presenting my secondary research findings around what are the elements, which are important for a newcomer youth and how communication design could play a role in terms of youth involvements, creativity and shar-ing prospective. The purpose of this paper is to give the department of communication design a clear idea and present the steps I will be following for my grad project. Through this proposal I look forward to search for two key points: What are some of the key factors about newcomer immigrant and refugee youth in Vancouver? How design particularly, publication design could play a role to encourage newly immi-grant and refugee youth to be involved with the city and the youth community and empower newcomer youth voice. The paper will go through the steps of clear identification of design opportunity, proposed design concept, literature review and learning from other existing design materials involving design for social change, co-creation/human-centric design and how graphic design playing key role in promoting strong political and social issues. The paper concludes with proposed further design plans for the project. 1.0

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D e s i g n P r o p o s a l

Every year thousands of youth come to Vancouver from around the world. Ministary of Advance Education and Labour Market Development stated that, from 2004-2008, approximately 40,000 immigrants arrived an-nually in B.C and approximately 6,400 were youth. A large proportion of youth arrived as dependents, accompying their families. They come with their own identity, language and perspective of their own worlds. I immigrated here in 2005 with my family as a teenager. Although transitioning to a new cultural was difficult for me as a newcomer youth, sup-ports from young mentors and youth workers simplified the process. For five years I had the opportunity to collaborate and work with amazing mentors and community workers who facilitates newcomer youths in leader-ship, politics, social justices, arts, theatre and the education systems.

Newcomer immigrant and refugee youth are active and involved in many community projects and events in the city of Vancouver. While some newcomers find it challenging to cope with the demands of their new environ-ment, others feel out of place, and some deny their losses and difficulties for a long time (Dr. Yaya De Andrade, AMSSA – Cultures

West, 12). Newly arrived immigrant and refugee youths are unaware of the available services and active youth community of the city.

I intend to produce a magazine and feature newcomer youth experiences, stories, prospective and their involvement in the communities. Through this magazine I hope to educate, motive, entertain and encourage new immigrant and refugee youths about youth involvements in the city of Vancouver.

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L i t e r a t u r e R e v i e w

Vancouver is known as one of the best cities to live in the world. However, for most newcomer youth and their fami-lies this is where they struggle. Youth in general face various multiple stages of changes and obstacles in social life and at schools. For newcomer youth peer pressure and learning everything new without any support pushes them beyond boundaries and lands them on wrong paths. Nonetheless, newcomer youths in Vancouver built their own active communities and sustained this process through mentoring other youth and involving them in various small and big projects through out the city. My literature review focuses on two main factors:

1.I want to find out what are some of the key factors of about newcomer youth? 2.How design and creativity could play a role in motivating and encouraging newcomer youths?

2.1N e w c o m e r y o u t h F a c t o r sI n d i v i d u a l f a c t o r s

Each newcomer youth holds various factors about themselves. These factors are associated with youths’ sense of safety and sense of self, the adults they have in their lives to provide them with guidance and the connections they have with their peers, and the sense of purpose they have regarding their futures.

One of the biggest risk factor is isolation. Wort-ley and Tanner (2007) assert that gangs are perceived by some youth as providing emotional support and a sense of belonging. Youth become isolated if they do not participate in activities with their peers or if they are not connected to others in their community (CSVG, 2006). Ros-siter and Rossiter (2009) list some of the indi-vidual protective factors for newcomer youth as including a sense of cultural identity and belong-ing, and pro-social (i.e., marked by empathy and willingness to help with no expectations of some-thing in return) inter-cultural peer programs and relationships. Suggestions made by CSGV (2006) to foster connectedness are to support youth in participating sports, clubs and organizations, and to give youth useful roles in the community.

Youth can provide services to other youth, such as, peer mentorship. Isolation is also connected

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to the risk factor of newcomer youth being teased or bullied (CSGV, 2006). Various com-munity projects, creative involvement and activities that provide opportunities for cultural exchange and understanding can help promote a sense of belonging. Youth, who spend time alone or unsupervised, particularly during the after-school hours, can also benefit from pro-gramming meant to foster connectedness and opportunities to help youth develop positive peer relationships (CSGV, 2006).

F a m i l y f a c t o r s

Most newcomer youth come to Vancouver with their families. In a research paper about violence prevention for New Immigrant and Refugee Youth in B.C stated that, with the shift of culture and new society, newcomer families experience stresses and challenges. They have to deal with their own isolation and stress along side with their children’s emotional status. These factors associated with cultural expecta-tions and different rates of acculturation within the family sometimes lead to conflicts between the parents and newcomer youth.

D e s i g n ’ s R o l eD e s i g n i n g A n E x p e r i e n c e Design now a day is not just designing a prod-uct or a brochure. Design now acts as a me-dium to make a connection person to person. At the beginning of the semester while we were in the process of pitching our design idea I knew that I want to design a magazine and represent newcomer youth voice in it. How-ever, my intention is not just do a publication; I want to involve newcomer youth and youth mentors in this process. Design in this project will play the role of designing an experience for the users. I want to go from user-centered design to participatory design. As Elizabeth B. stated in her article” From user-centered to participatory deign approaches:

“In the 1980s I played the role of the human factors practitioner, or “user advocate.” My role was to know the user and to translate that knowing into principles and prescriptions that the designers with whom I worked could understand and use. We called this the user-centered design process. As I learned way to help make products and information systems more usable, I also studied the designers, es-pecially the ways they visually communicated with each other.”

I will be providing youth with structure during our design process. As a designer I will be

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observing, learning and will continue my col-lection of other design inspirations. A group of newcomer youth and mentors will be participat-ing in the design process. BEATS magazine is will be by youth and for youth. Elizabeth and Sanders called this method “Participatory cul-ture” and stated,

The idea of “Experience Design” has begun to acknowledge the role of emotions in human experience. However, we can never really “de-sign experience.” Experiencing is a constructive activity. That is, a user’s experience (with com-munication, for example) is constructed of two equal parts: what the communicator provides, and what the communication brings to the inter-action. Where the two parts overlap is where the actual communication occurs. (Jensen 1999)As a designer I will be playing the role of facili-tating the participatory design process through focus groups, interviews, content generations with a group of newcomer youth and mentors. Youths will be providing me with their experi-ences and prospective. However, I will be re-sponsible for the final magazine layout design, development and production and creating an identity for BEATS magazine.

“In participatory experiences, the roles of the designer and the researcher blur and the user becomes a critical component of the process. The new rules call for new tools. People want to express themselves and to participate directly and proactively in the design development process.”

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E x i s t i n g D e s i g n P r o j e c t

During my secondary research I came across to few local and national youth magazine. One of the magazine’s, which has a very similar concept to mine, is L I V E . u k . Live Futures Ltd and it is a not-for-profit company that uses magazines and media to empower and improve the lives of young people in London.

Live Magazine is social publishing enterprise cre-ated entirely by teenagers and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds, under the mentor-ships of professional journalists, photographers and designers that volunteer their time and skills to this cause. The magazine gives another chance to youths who were not able to engage with the education system. The youths have complete editorial and creative freedom, the mentors only provide them with a framework for the magazine.

Live Futures brings them in to their offices and provides them with the tools, training and re-sources to create a magazine. Live Futures also provides journalism-training courses to these young people, as another way to uplifting and empowering them.

Live magazine is almost entirely youth-owned and has helped more than 75 young people into employment and/or education. In it’s nine-year existence, Live Magazine has succeeded using the formula: Young people communicating positive social messages to other young people.2.1 8

D e s i g n O p p o r t u n i t y

Newly arrived immigrant and refugee youths are not aware of available resources and active youth community of the city of Vancouver. The design opportunity is to inform new-comer youths about the activities and vibrate cultures of newcomer youths and mentors. Through this process of doing a print publica-tion I am looking forward to involve youth voice and encourage other newcomer youth to join the activities and the community.

The need to design a publication is that we are currently lacking newcomer youth involve-ment in creative industries. This will be a plate form for the youths themselves to be expressive and to share their stories with other newcomers within the city.

“Someone having experiencing creativity and the joys of producing something is great. I think print process is very important because if a kid comes in, gets crea-tive, creates an article and then a month or two later it’s printed and they have the magazine in their hand and see their work that is the attach list and that could be thing gets them to the journey and really could change courses alone lives. We see creativity changing the world every day.”

Gavin Weale Managing director Live Futures Ltd.

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D e s i g n O b j e c t i v e s

My design objectives for BEATS Magazine is to educate, motive, entertain and encourage new immigrant and refugee youth about youth com-munity, their own stories, backgrounds and the current city. The objectives of this design project follows as below:

To encourge youth to be involve in the process of making and creating content and concept for the magaizne.

To be informative about the vibrant immigrant and refugee youth community and the on going projects in the city.

To connect and collaborate with all not for profit orgazinations and small youth groups who dedicate their work and engergy towards newcomer youth and settlement.

To inform and encourgae newcomer parents about youth involvment in the community.

To encourage and inform avarage Canadian youth about newcomer youth, their back-grounds, stories, identities and involvment within the city. 2.3

Through this project I look forward to see some behavioral change in newcomer youth between the ages 14-26. For example, If a newcomer youth waiting to see his/her counselor at the settlement services office and happen to pick up BEATS Magazine and take a look through it and makes his/her decision to join youth street mural project for next summer that would be an accomplishment for me as a designer.

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D e s i g n C r i t e r i a

T a r g e t a u d i e n c e

The audience for BEATS Magazine is newcomer immigrant and refugee youth between the ages of 14-26.

Newcomer youth families.

Youth mentors and facilitators in the community.

M a r k e t i n g a u d i e n c e Non-profit/Grass root organizations working for newcomer youths.

2.4S t r u c t u r e o f B E A T S M a g a z i n e

The magazine will be 8x10 inch.

Full colour.

100% recycled paper.

20 -32 pages of layout.

Use of photography and illustrations.

Use of vibrate and youthful colors.

The magazine will consist of several topics or subjects.

The content (articles, tips, few photography will be provided by the youth themselves).

A team of youth will decide on the content of the BEATS Magazine. The magazine will be of simple and clear layout.

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2.4A e s t h e t i c C r i t e r i a

T h e c o l o u r p a l e t t e w i l l c o m m u n i c a t e e n e r g y a n d r y t h e m . I t w i l l c o n s i s t s o f d y n a m i c m o v e m e n t s .

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A e s t h e t i c C r i t e r i a

T h e s p r e a d s w i l l b e d y n a m i c , s i m p l e a n d c l e a r . I a m l o o k i n g f o r w a r d t o h a v e g o o d i n t e r a c t i o n s b e t w e e n i m a g e s a n d t e x t a n d h a v e a s m o o t h f l o w s p r e a d t o s p r e a d .

F e w i n s p i r a t i o n s h o w n b e l o w . 2.4

S u s t a i n a b i l i t y A n a l y s i s

E n v i r o n m e n tDesign can translate complex concepts into the relevant messages that help people adopt behavioral change.

C r e a t i o nThere will be 40 copies of this magazine and it will be saddle stitch. The printer will use laser jet printing and the printer has the potential to use certain level of energy dur-ing the process. The transportation is very minimized. The produced magazines will be picked up by the designer herself therefore there is no big transportation cost or envi-ronmental footprint left.

D u r a b i l i t yThe average expected life span of the maga-zine is 15-20 years. However, with given situations this time length may increase or decrease. The material is easily reused. Once the user is done with the magazine he/she can choose to put it in paper recycle and it will be molded and reuse in products such as paper cups or plates.

S u p p l y C h a i nThe material is constructed locally and the printer Van Prints uses all recycled paper.

However, the count of recyclable elements within the papers varies from 20%-100%.

P e o p l eDesign can visualize acute needs, raise aware-ness, prompt public response, and affect policy. It can promote messages of inclusion, equality and empathy.

I m p a c t sThe concept behind Beats Magazine is to con-nect newcomer youth. The magazine will be created by newcomer youth and for newcomer youth. Beats could involve an individual to an entire community of newcomer youth and their families. Given the content of the magazine I am hoping it will be personally relatable to my targeted audience and through this process hopefully readers of this magazine will learn to make a collections of Beats Magazine.

D e s i r a b i l i t yI am hoping Beats Magazine will be desirable by customers and stakeholders. In this project my customers are newcomer youth and the stakeholders are the not for profit world who work toward transition and settlement for im-migrant and refugee youths. I hope by involv-2.4

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ing youth themselves in the process of design the magazine it will become even more desir-able by the audience.

N e e d / U s eBeats Magazine will provide immigrant and refugee youth with an open media platform to express and project their voice and share their prospective about the city and the system. Through this project I hope to create a space to share, collaborate and build a community where newcomers are connected through creativity. The process of involvement of youth them-selves creates a sense of belonging and works as an empowerment device.

L o n g V i e wThis project will engage and empower new-comer youth and sustain this process by creat-ing more youth mentors. Beats Magazine is a plateform for youth voice and their expressions. And by giving the youth themselves an oppor-tunity to speak up I am hoping to have a long life for this magazine.

E c o n o m yDesign thinking’s approach to investigation, analysis, and visualization can create value and opportunities for companies and people across all streams of sustainability.

S y s t e m i c V i e wThis will be a non-profit magazine. The maga-zine will be free of any charge for the readers. There will be two issue produced each year. Their will be grant application submitted each year for funding and financial supports. There will also be collaborations with other non-profit youth projects within the city.

M e t r i c sBeats Magazine hopefully, will have more sen-timenatal value then financial profit.

B e n e f i t sThe benefits of this project is devided into three different sections: Newcomer youth community, individual youth and the organization itself.

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C u l t u r eDesign can cross cultural barries to promote universal understanding.

M e a n i n g a n d R e a c t i o n sThis magazine will be representation of indi-vidual cultures and communities. It will iden-tify the issues newcomer youth face and their attachments to the community. Through this project I am hoping to promote sense of belong-ing and involvement for the newcomer youth and thier families in the new city.

A s y s t e m i c v i e wThe content of this magazine will be produce by the youth themselves and the execution will be done by the grad student Jennifer Sarkar.

Beats magazine will talk about various cultures from which the youths are from . It will present various prespectives of cultures.

D i v e r s i t yThrough various stories and prespective of the youth Beats Magazine will present cultural diversity. The magazine could also have various cultural fashion and food sections. Beats will represent diversity through the content produce by the youth. 2.4

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U s e r P r o f i l e

3.0Z a m e n S h a r H i g h S c h o o l S t u d e n t

16-years-old male.

Newcomer. Landed in Vancouver July 2011.Country of origin: Palestine

Lives with his family. Two older syblings.

Quite but friendly.

Y o u t h

Zamen Shar is a 16 years old Palestine boy. He moved to Canada with his family because of his father’s career change. Zamen likes to read fictional books, spend time with his few new friends at school and play soccer in his free time.

He likes to learn and know new cultures, lan-guages and share his own stories and experi-ences. He started to volunteer with a youth camp during few months in Vancouver. He likes to involve himself with small fun projects. He is into people and places.

S k i l l s

Connecting and communicat-ing with people.

Fictional writings. Good storyteller. Leadership/youth facilitaion.

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U s e r P r o f i l e

3.0N a t h a l i e S h a wY o u t h m e n t o r / f a c i l i t a t o r

27-years-old Female

Came to Vancouver 11 years ago.Work in a non-profit organiztion for past 5 years

Lives with roommates.

Interested in Social Justic and Plitical ScienceEducational background: Political Science

Y o u t h W o r k e r

Nathalie Shaw came to Vancouver 11 years ago with her family from South America. She works for newcomer youth and their family. Through her work and her personal life she tries her best to support and mentor newcomer families espe-cially youths settle in new enviroment and in a new system of society.

S k i l l s

Youth Leadership trainings.

Knowledge about legal immi-grant and refugee settlements. Good computer skills.

Project Development.

Very good knowledge about current political situation of Canada and world economy.

Youth Counselling.18

U s e r P r o f i l e

3.0M e e r a M c N i s hY o u t h p r o j e c t f u n d e r

38-years-old Female.

Married with a kid.

Lives in Vancouver and with her family.

Interested in dynamic youth culture and projects in the city of Vancouver.

Educational Background: Civil Engeneer, Community Project Development

F u n d e r

Meera McNish was born in Boston and moved to Vancouver, Canada when she was 3 years old. She is interested in youth and early child-hood development. She worked with various corporate and non-profit world. Currently she holds community project development funds under a private company named Urban System. Each year their committe goes through potential recipients of funding opportunities. Their organi-zation works towards developing the city space and also have involvment in social and cultural development of the city.

S k i l l s

Technical Drawings.

Knowlege about the city and the ongoing projects. (big/small)

Project Development.

Youth mentor and leadership in creative and technical industries.

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G a n t t C h a r t

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B E A T S M A G A Z I N E N e w c o m e r Y o u t h P e r s p e c t i v e a n d V o i c eV o l u m e 1 . 2 0 1 3

Expenses Description Amount

Travel (Youth) 4-concession booklet $68.00 $17 each

Material & Supplies Writing + drawing $100.00 papers (markers) Meeting Allowance 8 youth $35 each $280.00(Honoraria to youth) honoraria

Meeting food + drinks 5 days (max) $200.00 $40 each day

Magazine production 40 copies $400.00(Mock ups + full colour and 100%Final prints+ show) recycled paper

TOTAL $1048.00

B u d g e t

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A N N O T A T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Better Paper, project of Green America. Online 2012.http://betterpaper.ning.com/page/better-paper-magazine-members#CookingFoodandWine

Better Paper is an American company dedicated to recycled paper products. There site explains all the ways to find recycled paper and the use of it in various know and unknown local and national magazines.

Community Solution to Gang Violence (CSGV) 2006. CSGV risk and protective framework: building protective factors around children, young people and families to prevent gang in-volvement. This was a study done in 2006 by CSGV team members. The results of the study was published through a research paper which, states all the key factors and reasons for which young people and families involvement in gangs.

Design Indaba, LIVE UK. Magazines For Social Change. Vimeo Video. Posted 2010. <http://vimeo.com/11686835>

Live Futures Ltd is a not-for-profit company that uses magazines and media to empower and improve the lives of young people in London. The video features Gavin Weale Managing director of Live Futures Ltd.

EcoPrint 2012: Steinbeis presents sustainable high-performance papers for office use, pro-duction printing, and magazine and high-speed Inkjet printing. July 2012 online

<http://www.ecoprintshow.com/ecoprint-blog/ecoprint-2012-steinbeis-presents-sustainable-high-performance-papers-for-office-use-production-printing-and-magazine-and-high-speed-inkjet-printing>

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A N N O T A T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y

This site shows and promotes various recycled paper materials and paper production and also states, which recycled paper is better for the environment and beneficial for business financially.

Francis, J and Yan, M. (2009). Building Bridges, making connections: meeting the needs of youth in Metro Vancouver. Unpublished report.

This report is mostly directed towards youth workers in Metro Vancouver. It goes through different techniques and steps for youth workers and mentors to be more involve and encourage youth engagements.

Jensen, R. (1999) The Dream Society: How the coming shift form information to imagination will transform your Business (New York: McGraw-Hill)

The Dream Society provides examples of successful companies that already understand those markets and meet and profit from them. Most important, it details how your company can be poised to take advantage of this coming market megatrend.

Macdonald, N (2007, August 27). From Africa, with guns. Maclean’s 120(33), 20-21.

This was an article from Maclean’s Magazine. It told a story of a young boy from Africa and his experience with trauma and how his integration in a new country was difficult due to his experiences.

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A N N O T A T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Rossiter, M and Rossiter, K (2009). Immigrant youth and crime: stakeholder perspectives on risk and protective factors. Prairie Metropolis Centre Working Paper Series. Working paper no. WP02-09.

This paper is part of series of studies and the result of these studies. The document goes through various stories and cultural differences and minds of immigrant youths and explores their needs.

Sasha A. Michael K. Critical Design Ethnography: Designing for Change. Article was pub-lished online January 8th, 2008.

This article describes critical design ethnography, an ethnographic process involving participatory design work aimed at transforming a local context while producing an instructional design that can be used in multiple contexts. Here, we reflect on the opportuni-ties and challenges that emerged as we built local critiques then reified them into a designed artifact that has been implemented in classrooms all over the world.

Sander, L (1997) Cognition and Emotion Bibliography, A project of the Graphic Design Edu-cation Association, American Center for Design, Chicago, Illinois.

This article is about designers considering a mindset that allows them to derive inspiration for ideation from empathy for the emotional experiences of the people who will live with their design. Writer of the article believe that end-users can and should be the most important players in the design process.

Shea, Andrew. Designing for Social Change: Strategies for Community-Base Graphic Design,

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Princeton Architectural Press, New York, Print 2012.

This book is for graphic designers who want to use their unique problem-solving skills to help others. Author Andrew Shea presents ten proven strategies for working effective-ly with community organizations. These strategies can frame the design challenge and create a checklist to keep a project on track. Twenty case studies illustrate how design professionals and students approach unique challenges when working on a social agenda.

Strategic Invention Branch, Labour Market and Immigrantion Division. Ministary of Advance Education and Labour Market Development. WelcomeBC 2010.

This is a report, which states statistics about immigrant worker and labour market of British Columbia.

Wortley, S and Tanner, J. Criminal organizations or social groups? An exploration of the myths and realities of youth gangs in Toronto (first draft). University of Toronto. Pdf. 2007

This document explores lives of few youth who has been involved with gang activities in the past. It also points our isolation as one of the key risk factors along side with other emotional statues.

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BEATS magazine

N e w c o m e r Y o u t h P r e s p e c t i v e s + V o i c e