„W O R D S create W O R L D S - and when they collide they create value.“

This week the worlds of business and fine arts collided in Breda: some of St.Joost’s graduating students and the Imagineering Masterclass 2009/2010 met for a 2-day workshop in order to envision and visualise the future of our application companies.
“Standing on the Shoulders of Giants; Brands in 2015” – the header under which the workshop took place was a pilot project in order to start co-creation amongst different areas of expertise, so that the upcoming master years in Imagineering have a solid and creative basis for mingling their knowledge with professional design skills. As we learned in one of our first weeks in class, both managers and designers have to expand their knowledge and skills into more areas. A combination of design and strategic management therefore does not seem so devious; it even is suggested! Ultimately, it is not a coincidence that Imagineering is called a ‘design approach’…
Being invited to the building of St.Joost was the first real chance to change perspectives. I remember walking in with some classmates the first day: feeling a bit like tourists, being fascinated from this old abbey hidden somewhere between highway and forests. It was huge, giving students space to move and think, giving me back the feeling of old school days and giving inspirations in form of design projecs at nearly each corner. The entire building had a black/white scale, but exactly that brought the creative projects of its students to the fore.

DAY I: Analysis
We started off with some ‘gezellig’ (that’s what the Dutch people say for something like ‘cosy’) introduction including coffee, tea, cookies and some small talk for getting to know each other. In total we were a group of more or less 20 students and four teachers/coordinators. After that the more formal part came with introducing our studies to each other. We students were responsible to come up with presentation of our studies, the teachers guided us. In addition we followed an interesting lecture from Marco Bevolo about socio-cultural values and how they will look like in five years from now. Bevolo was employed ten years at Philips in the Netherlands and gave us some tipps and tricks on how to approach best the upcoming hours. After lunch, which was used to socialize and find some matches amongst the St. Joost students, we started off with the actual analysis part of the day. It was at us Imagineers (the storytellers) to give the designers (the interpreters) a solid basis for their work. With our knowledge and research about our application companies we defined a so-called “degree zero”, a starting point reflecting where the company stands at this point of time. From there on we tried to develop a concept for the same brand and how it should look like in the future. The visualisation was at the designers, the vision at us. Two hours later, many ideas more and a starting point richer we presented our results to the teachers. Another two hours later we left the design world and went home into our own wolrds, being curious about the upcoming day…

DAY II: Creativity
The second and last day started the same way as the one before, but included even more creative freedom for us. After a wrap-up we could start again where we ended. All of us were very eager and enjoyed working into the direction we defined with our analysis and it was great to see that it became clearer with every hour. In the end we were supposed to come up with a ‘visual passport’ that reflects our application company in 5 years after having applied Imagineering. In the lunch break we were all remarkably quiet, I guess our energy was mainly put into our projects and the newly gained energy was saved for the rest of the day to finalize what we started. At 4pm we proudly presented our results. Me and my team developed ‘McConnect’, a connecting platform for international students at one of the McDonald’s restaurants in Breda. Others also came up with simple but catchy concepts, such as creating the image of the Dutch airport (schiphol) as a small city that connects many places and people, or a real city that wants to make the core values more visible. Another concept was DAVE. DAVE symbolized a loner out of America, striving to fulfil the American Dream. But instead of fulfilling it in the States, he went to an Indian city which was an application company of one Imagineering student. In the end the results were satisfying, we were satisfied and the last days were about to end. That called for some drinks!
Leaving the old abbey, I took a lot of impressions but also appreciation with me. Not only the building, but also the design students inspired me for my project and taught me how important it is to take a step out of your own world and take a glimpse into another. Letting our worlds collide, we created something tangible for my company but also something valuable for me: a much clearer insight of what I really want to do with Imagineering at my application company and how it could look like. I was amazed that there are more creative heads, just around the corner! Sometimes things are so close but still so far away - until you (or in our case the Imagineering Academy) take(s) the initiative to trespass the boarders. I guess the theme of NHTV of ‘Discover your world’ could be expanded to ‘Discover your world and those of others’…
Sitting here and typing these lines I think bringing together these two worlds is similar to me being here in the Netherlands: Important in both cases is to elaborate on a common level of language. One world uses these words and attaches this meaning, the other world othes those words and attaches that meaning. Common vocabulary has to be co-created so that you can connect on a different but very interesting level which in the end makes you broaden your own horizon. In any case you gotta be open for the unknown, be appreciative and not judging but rather be curious and passionated about new things, see them as challenges that deliver some great experiences you will never forget. And in the end these are the things that make you become who you are.