Inneract Project

Program Overview
and Goals

W HO W E A R E :

Bringing Design to
the Community

Inneract
Project
In the Bay
Area, the arts
create more
than 31,000 jobs
and generate 1.2
billion dollars
in economic
activity every
year.

Overview:
Inneract Project (IP) is a professionally-supported program that provides free
design classes and initiatives to inner-city youth, in order to introduce them to the
field of design and channel their creativity into viable career paths. Our program
includes 1) a Youth Design Academy, which is one 8-week class session per year
that provides students with hands-on design exercises 2) Learning Labs, which are
one-day interactive design education events throughout the year, and 3) Designed.,
an ongoing video series documenting designers, celebrities and everyday peoples
stories about design.

Inneract Projects mission is to provide free

design education to inner-city youth and
their communities, to serve as a facilitator
to aspiring career designers and to mentor
youth to pursue higher education.
Inner-city youth have the least access and exposure to fields in design. IPs vision
is to provide students access to these fields in an inspirational college setting, at an
age when aptitude and curiosity can be best harvested. We do this by connecting
the design community with urban communities, schools and families in a
collaborative effort to help under-resourced youth achieve their highest potential.

Initiative
Overview:
California has
the most artists,
the largest
economy and
the least State
government arts
funding of any
state in the USA.

Youth Design Academy

Youth Design Academy (YDA) introduces middle school
students to basic principles of design. The program
emphasizes conceptual, analytical and creative thinking
through a sequence of design exercises that encourage
idea generation, exploration and creation.
YDA is structured as eight weekly classes, held on Saturdays
for four hours each at two locations in the Bay Area.
There are 16 students per location and classes are led by
two teachers and three teacher aides. During the 8-week
session, students work with teachers, who are current
design professionals, on exercises designed to develop their
creative potential through the exploration of various design
concepts, such as shape, form, typography, composition, and
prototyping. YDA seeks to serve inner-city middle school
students that are creative and have an interest in design or
art.that are creative and interested in design or art.

IP Learning Labs
Learning Labs are one-day educational events that feature
short lectures by design professionals, design-centric
workshops, and tours of design studios and museums. They
cater to everyone from students to their parents to the
broader community and aim to serve as an interactive and
engaging way to explore many facets of the design industry.
Learning Labs can supplement the Youth Design Academy
curriculum or be sampled on a standalone basis as an
introduction to the field.

Designed.
Design is all around us logos, architecture, furniture,
packaging, websites, technology, fashion, and endless other
places. The subject, however, is not taught in traditional K-12
education, so most peoples exposure to the field is limited
to their unknowing interaction with design in everyday
life. Inneract Project aims to educate the community about
design, the opportunity to pursue design as a worthwhile
and valuable profession, and how to leverage design to
solve real-world problems. IP is producing a series of short
videos documenting an ongoing conversation with designers,
celebrities and everyday people about the importance of
design and how much we rely on design in our everyday lives.
The videos aim to spark interest, spur conversation, and raise
awareness of the field of design. Videos will be available via
the Inneract Project website

Primary Goals

Inneract
Projects
3 Primary
Goals

1. Educating young people and their communities about

the field of design and potential design careers.
Design is all around us logos, architecture, furniture, packaging, websites,
technology, fashion, and endless other places. The topic / profession has
recently come to the forefront of the press and social media due to new
startups need for designers but it has always been, and will continue to
be, a fundamental discipline and process a way of thinking, an agent for
solving todays most difficult problems. The term design can refer to a job,
a function, or an industry designation but, at Inneract Project, we believe it
is a skill that everyone, regardless of profession, can and should leverage.
Design is not taught in traditional K-12 education. Some people come
across design in classes in college, but many arent exposed to it at
all besides their unknowing interaction with it in everyday life. There
often is confusion between the concepts of design and art.
Inneract Projects free workshops educate kids, their parents, and the
community about design, the opportunity to pursue design as a worthwhile
and valuable profession, and how to leverage design to solve real world
problems. IP creates a classroom experience with hands-on projects to
teach what it means to design something teachers work with students and
students work together in our small classes of 10-15 kids. Parents are also
encouraged to work with their children outside of class through Learning
Labs. This holistic approach creates a learning experience with relevant
context for students. Parents, families and community figures continue this
dialog with kids outside the classroom to make design more relatable.
2. Mentoring: Linking designers to underserved youth providing a place for
designers to give back and for youth to be mentored by real practitioners.
Inneract Project is run entirely by volunteers. Our education chair (one of the
12-person IP committee) works extensively with teacher volunteers (local
design professionals) to craft detailed lesson plans for each Youth Design
Academy session. Teachers leverage these structured lesson plans and their own
professional knowledge base to develop extensive curriculum centered around
problem solving using design concepts. In the classroom, designers teach kids
the fundamentals of design via slideshows and a sequence of in-class exercises.
During the course of the class, designers connect with students by passing on
their knowledge and introducing their own professional career. Some designers

Inneract
Projects
3 Primary
Goals

have had previous teaching roles before IP, but many have not. They come away
from the experience knowing how to lead a class of students and how to interact,
mentor, and guide kids through the learning materials and potential career
trajectories. Most students receive one-on-one tutorials during IP class sessions
and are given ample opportunity to actively participate and ask questions. Our
teacher volunteers have provided very positive feedback on the IP classroom

We must bring
design to the
community, and
you will see
more minority
representation
without having
to have a
special program
set aside.
The design
community
should probably
have more of
a presence
with youth at a
younger age.

experience and appreciate the opportunity to give back to their community.

Our middle school students are taught to think critically, collaborate with
other students and come up with creative solutions to problems. They
are exposed to a college setting at a young age, which may positively
influence them to pursue college in the future. Working with teachers who
are real practitioners in the industry provides students with role models
and real life examples of what a design professional does. Throughout our
program, students populate their own design portfolios with the work they
complete in the classroom. These portfolios are theirs to keep and take
with them to other educational programs and / or job opportunities.
3. Adding diversity to design communities to broaden the scope of
ideas, processes and solutions to problems in the world today.
Diversity is a concern that spans all design disciplines. We cannot efficiently
and effectively solve problems in the world today without the input of
diverse subsets of people. Diversity sparks creativity, brings new ideas
to the table, and broadens our perspectives. Inneract Projects mission
is to encourage minorities and lower income children to learn design
and contribute their experience and ideas to the field. Our program
works with young people, primarily from African American, Hispanic and
Asian decent, and from middle to low socioeconomic backgrounds.
Our founder, Maurice Woods, only discovered design after running out of
options when his pursuit of playing professional basketball did not pan out.
His love for drawing as a kid was his inspiration to pursue graphic design
as a career, even though up to the point of taking his first graphic design
class, he had never heard of the field before. Had he not been persistent in
perusing the course catalog to find courses of interest to him, Maurice may
never have majored in graphic design. Since starting in the field, Maurice has
brought unique perspectives to design projects he works on and has become
an advocate for more youth and minorities to get involved with the field.

Inneract
Projects
3 Primary
Goals

Maurice believes exposure is the key, relevancy is essential, and accessibility

seals the deal. We must bring design to the community, and you will see more
minority representation without having to have a special program set aside.
The design community should probably have more of a presence with youth
at a younger age. (http://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-maurice-woods/)
Modeling after Maurices life, IP aims to offer design avenues to children
at an early age, when creative interests can be fostered and developed
into career choices. Our intention is to develop programs that not
only teach kids design, but also educate communities, through video
documentaries, interviews, Learning Labs and sponsored events.
Inneract Project is rooted in bringing diversity to design. Not only are the kids
in our classes diverse (gender, ethnicity, socio-economics, skills & interests,
etc.), but we are specifically developing curriculum and programming that
makes design relevant to young people. Our programming strives to suit the
way young people live and centers around what is important to them. For
example, for a class project, we may ask students to design their own logos
and jerseys for a basketball team. Or we may ask them to design a CD cover
for a local music group. These assignments and ideas can bring design to
young people in a way that they can understand how design works for them.
The success of Inneract Projects programming for minority students depends
upon support from three key groups: mentors from the design community,
parents who understand what design is and what it can be used for, and
partnerships with community businesses and figures that can support our
mission and our efforts to bring more diversity to design, one student at a time.
When Maurice started design school, his interest was sparked by his love for
the arts. However, he stayed with design because of the inspiration he received
from Tony Gables work, an African American designer whose Malcolm X poster
proved the power of graphic design. Exposure, relevancy and accessibility are
key. Inneract Projects primary goals are rooted in these three principles.