PROJECT X OVERVIEW

This blog will be going over my final project 'PROJECT X'. I will be looking at the final outcomes, where they came from, how they have been developed as well as going through the research and other important parts of the project. Throughout i will be putting the earlier visual concepts along with the final versions so you can see the development of PROJECT X.

Initial concept

I have always wanted to work on a company/business that revolves around the goal of helping decrease knife crime and gang violence. This is because I believe that this problem of knife crime is a huge public health crisis that effects young people, but for various reasons, it has not been treated or tackled, but instead fuelled.

PROJECT X is a creative social enterprise business that looks to tackle knife crime and gang violence by hosting creative workshops that showcase various sections of the creative industry.

PROJECT X can provide new opportunities and skills to individuals and communities that have

suffered from cuts in youth services and being effected by various other social or economic

issues.

This idea of a creative youth workshop enterprise business started a long time ago when i first learnt about SPUD (Space Place and Urban Development) which is a charity that seeks to encourage art and creation through architecture, offering free workshops to children where they can work on live briefs and projects in various different forms. Having worked for SPUD as well as having a very good connection with the creative manager of the charity, i quickly learnt that this creative charity style of business was very effective and something that i wanted to get involve with.

As i gained more insight into SPUD i soon realised that i could use a creative social enterprise/charity business model to help fight the social issue of knife crime and gang violence. I have always wanted to try and help this issue because it is extremely relevant to my generation as well as where i want to live and generally walk around - London being the worst place in the UK for knife crime, it only felt right to work on solving it when i am in a position to try and do so.

Having an idea of who i was going to target, where i was going to initiate PROJECT X and how i was going to help solve knife crime and gang violence, i needed to make sure i had strong research to back up the idea, will giving resources and opportunities to communities through the creative arts help reduce knife crime and gang violence?

I knew even before the project started that there is a significant link between poverty, cuts in youth services by the government, exclusion and knife crime - My job was to get this information and display it in a way that makes it clear and somewhat attractive to the eye, as data can be boring and ugly to look at, and because knife crime is a pretty dark subject to read and learn about, i felt that it was important to make the research section in my project as nice on the eye as possible.

For me, the evidence couldn't be more clear in the fact that the way our society is set up and how our government has acted towards certain communities and areas within our population, has caused a massive serge in knife crime. Partnering extreme cuts in youth services and the increase in exclusion rates which is because of the strain on school facilities and teachers, has created an environment for young, poorer children where they have no options, no opportunities and no help. In result, we get massive increases in knife crime offences, hospital admissions from knife wounds and unfortunately, homiacides caused by a knife.

How PROJECT X will help

It was extremely important to me that PROJECT X deals with this problem in a different way as to how the majority of other charities try and tackle knife crime.

(please see anti knife crime campaign blog) From my research and general awareness of the subject, i realised that there is a narrative that gets pushed by the media companies as well as the government when it comes to knife crime and gang violence. Instead of focusing on a solution to help the situation, they focus on the individual and how to blame them. Focusing on just the violence and 'animalistic behaviour' which helps to alienate and demonise these very young people in our society and allows the blame to be pushed to either the parents or the 'gang member' 'killer' 'chav' 'animal' 'savage', depending on what descriptive word the papers wanted to use, they might even try and blame it on if the individual was an immigrant and came from another country. Using this tactic makes the public forget that these kids dying are sons, nephews, children just starting their life but have found themselves in an extremely toxic environment that is down to the factors mentioned above - Austerity, poverty, cuts in services, lack of support by the government, NOT the young child with his back against his wall and forced into a lifestyle that he did not choose.

(See theories on communities, occupational and creative intervention blog) To tackle knife crime and gang violence, PROJECT X will focus on three main ideologies that i believe will positively change the culture of young people being involved in knife crime and instead joining PROJECT X and learning new creative skills.

Creative social intervention has been used in various industries and social groups to help society in

various cases such as addiction, crime and general physical and mental health rehabilitation.

Enjoying the creative arts has huge benefits for individuals that are struggling with factors of reality

that are effecting them. The arts is a form of expression and escapism where they may not be any.

How poetic is that last bit? I looked back on it and couldn't believe i even wrote it

Community is extremely important for the development of our younger generations. To make sure we

help the communities as much as possible we will be pushing to provide recourses and opportunities to create an environment our young people can grow and thrive in.

Starting a positive cycle in our society of which young people have access to the creative industry

through PROJECT X - Whatever race, gender or background, can, and will, start a culture which

grows finds and nurtures talent, instead of it being wasted.

For the first PROJECT X workshop i wanted it to be a jewelry design course. This was because i wanted the handed in knives to be melted down and made into jewelry, which was a great metaphor for what PROJECT X is, turning something negative into positive, or at least giving the opportunity to the youth to turn a negative life style into a positive one.

At the start it is important to note that i wasn't very clear on what the first workshop was going to be, i was looking at PROJECT X more broadly, trying to picture the business as a whole instead of just one workshop. This was an important point in the project because i realised that i needed to be far more thorough and focus on a small part of PROJECT X to make it as good as it possibly can.

I mentioned above about the handing in on the knives and trading a negative life style for a positive one, this is very important for PROJECT X as we want to be an opportunity and a choice for young people to invest into, the problem with many charities that focus on knife crime is that they come across as quite an unattractive business that doesn't attract a young people to get involved in, this was an area in which PROJECT X needed to learn from and make sure that we are an enticing brand which appeals to young people.

#Samepeoplenewtools

As well as hosting creative youth workshops, PROJECT X is also going to run the anti knife crime campaign 'Same people new tools' which again focuses on the idea of trading in a knife and swapping it for a creative skill. From the research we can understand that these young people are forced into a life that may be effected by knife crime and gang violence, but we can undertand that and recognise that, all we need to do is take that knife out of their hand and put a pen, pencil, graphics tablet, camera or microphone in their hand instead.

I made sure to stay far far away from any sort of fear mongering tones that involved blood, crime, death etc. and focused on the main idea of swapping out the negative for positive in a clear, simple way.

I think that same people new tools is a really nice campaign title that is easy to understand and recognise, partnering this with the other work, i think PROJECT X will come across as a very professional enterprise which has a good idea of how we can reach our audience in a way that will make them want to join us and start their creative journey.

Public installations

To further engage with the public and communities which PROJECT X wants to help, i thought that creating public instillations that look good and follow the same PROJECT X aesthetic, while providing a fun, productive sporting activity would hit 2 birds with one stone.

Sport and socialising is a very good way of engaging with each other and well, just having fun. I feel that there is always room for more of these facilities as they are so enjoyable to any age, gender or background. However, this on its own is not enough to fight the problem of knife crime and gang violence, but together with the rest of PROJECT X's deliverables, i think it will be a nice addition and an easy way to get people to hear about PROJECT X.

Looking back on these, i don't know how to feel, i think that the first football installation could be a bit more clean and tidy, however it was my first time in using these specific neon lighting techniques on a 3d image that i had to create. There is something really fun about building a 3D image out of rectangles. Overall i really liked the idea and using the brand imagery of PROJECT X in a completely different format and environment was interesting.

Summary

For me, doing this final big project in my last year of university in a lockdown situation was pretty rough. I am a guy who thrives off the social life and every day inspirations of life at university, i think that i missed that the most, of course, everyone was in the same boat as me and had to deal with it, i just feel as though PROJECT X could have been a level above what it is here if we were in a normal university situation. Having said that, i am really quite happy with what i have produced. I set out to create a creative social enterprise that will be in a position to help decrease knife crime and gang violence by giving opportunities and resources to the people effected. I did not want to do this through a very business plan format, i wanted to create a very visually impressive document that stands out and gives you information in an easy, effective way while focusing mostly on how the problem of knife crime can be solved, instead of focusing on the negatives that come from it.

Now, i want to take a break from PROJECT X, working on a project for 3 months in the lockdown months was pretty draining. However, i will be making PROJECT X happen, with the connections i have through SPUD, and now that i have a high quality document and presentation outlining what PROJECT X wants to do, i will be seeking investment and approaching universities and institutions to kick start PROJECT X and start helping as many young people effected by knife crime as possible.