The After Work Club from thinkpublic on Vimeo.

We are pleased to see that The After World Club has been selected as one of the five finalists for NESTA’s Ageing Well Challenge Prize.

If you would like to get involved in the next few months and support the After Work Club, drop us a note to hello-at-theafterworkclub.co.uk.

It’s pretty cool to see that we made Marketing Week’s top 50 agencies this year.
Being the first Service Design specialist to make the top 50 category.
Its great to see service design starting to be recognised alongside other design disciplines.

We’re looking forward to 2013!

Well done to Emma and Bill for getting the After Work Club shortlisted for The NESTA Ageing Well Challenge.

The Ageing Well Challenge prize is looking for innovations that can reduce the isolation and/or increase the mobility of vulnerable older people by providing new opportunities for communities to come together to give time, skills and resources.

Drop Emma and Bill a note to hello-at-theafterworkclub.co.uk if you would like to get involved or sign up for our next event in January 2013.

Yesterday Consumer Focus launched the user research report we complied ‘Today I told my story – Sharing experiences of social care’.

There is a clear need for better information and greater transparency in the care sector. The social care system is complex and notoriously difficult to navigate, yet there is no single authoritative and comprehensive information source that consumers can consult to find out their options and eligibility for services. It is particularly hard to gain insight into service quality or what people actually think about the services they use.

This report presents the work we undertook to develop a bespoke concept for the sector that is mindful of these difficulties. It does not offer a complete solution, rather suggests a foundation that others can build on. It starts by introducing the concept and explains why we think the time is right for a user feedback service in the care sector.

Well done to Zoe, Tamsin, Richard and Alice who all work really hard to make the user research and report happen.

Ambulatory Emergency Care from thinkpublic on Vimeo.

It’s great to see the animation being used, that’s part of the Ambulatory Emergency Care service design project we worked on for the NHS Institute.

Watch the animation to better understand how Ambulatory Emergency Care works.

Well done Ness, Chris, Sam and Abi.

I’ve just been watching Stefan Sagmeister’s Ted Talk on The Power of Time off, thanks to the lovely Julia from the NHS Institute who sent it to me. Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time off, which I’m wondering if you can or can’t draw parallels with when you are on maternity leave?

IntergenerationAll from thinkpublic on Vimeo.

We love our new animation that Ella and Stassja made for The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to help people search for their inner designer. Its part of the Intergenerational work we have been doing in the UK and Portugal over the last few years.

We hope it inspires you to try something new.

Looking for thinkpublic? We’re taking a pause, as our founding director Deborah is going on maternity leave from September 2012. We’ve learnt from many of our projects with new mums and children’s services, that starting a family can be like starting a business, extremely consuming in both time and energy. Which is why we are finishing off our current projects and pausing the work of the studio, we see this time as a chance to focus on a few initiatives, whilst feeding our imaginations.

“I started thinkpublic when I was 23 and I had no idea what an impact it would create. thinkpublic has grown from strength to strength, I have been lucky to work with some amazing people on a diverse and exciting range of projects. Yet now is the time to do something different for a bit, the ultimate ‘social’ thing of starting a family! I’m pretty sure it will give me plenty of food for thought, for when I return.” Deborah Szebeko

In 2003 Deborah had a vision that people should be involved in how public services are designed and delivered, and as a team thinkpublic worked with some forward thinking clients including the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, the Alzheimer’s Society, The Gulbenkian Foundation, NESTA, The Design Council and a long list of local authorities and local NHS Trusts to achieve this. This has resulted in many awards, including The British Council’s Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year and our latest Design Week, Service Design Award.

We’ve had an amazing time over the last 9 years leading and shaping the movement of social design and innovation in the UK and beyond. As a team we have used design to influence and change many mindsets, services and policies that have really resulted in creating a positive impact on people’s lives.

And we know there is more to do. So whilst we are away, we’re happy to talk about opportunities and partnerships, so do stay in touch. And watch this space for more news.

Watch some of our great films

Read some of our press and stories

Browse thinkpublic team and project photos

Contact thinkpublic

As part of The After Work Club we have joined up with Mike Jenn the founder of  The Camden Town Shed, for a seminar in how to start your own MensShed on 24th July.

Mike will share his experience and expertise to advise and answer questions about how to start your own Men’s Shed. Then experience a tour of The Camden Town Shed, see what it offers plus meet and chat to some of it’s members to hear what they get from it.

A MensShed develops the typical shed in the garden, where a man pursues practical interests in independence and ease, by adding better tools and resources and more interaction.  It  replaces elements of a workplace that some people miss such as a loss of role or purpose, chatting with the people you work with, problem solving, learning, sharing skills and even the work!

To find out more click here.

Over the last 7 months we have been working on a project to find ways to help keep older people connected as they enter into retirement. It culminated in the launch of The After Work Club a network to provide inspiration, connections, impetus and resources to redefine what life beyond your main career can hold. We talked to over 300 people to better understand the issues surrounding retirement and have gone through countless sessions where we analysed these insights and turned them into ideas for a sustainable social enterprise. Here are my 3 big learnings about retirement:

1. It’s long. The idea of pottering about for a couple of years, going on a cruise and playing some golf no longer cuts it. We can live for over 30 years in “retirement”. That is far to much time to be sitting about drinking cups of tea and watching the world go by (no matter how much you like tea). People have a huge amount still to offer. Let’s not waste that.
2. It should be an extended process of transition not a cliff edge. Running at full pelt, working 40+ hours a week, having an endlessly full diary and a to do list the length of your arm, then nothing. It doesn’t make sense. Sure it is like a lovely long holiday at first, then where does all that energy and skill go?  Most people don’t just want to give up. Yes, eventually the majority might want to slow down a bit, have more time for other things than their job, but this process should happen over a number of years, or a the speed the individual wants. Employers and society need to change their attitudes towards older workers, be more flexible about work arrangements and recognise that they are huge assets to their businesses.
3. It can be the start of an exciting new chapter. With the right attitude at support, retirement can be like being 19 again, with the world at your feet. Opportunities open up, you can do what you want to do, reprioritise, pursue lifelong dreams, take risks, meet new people, be your own boss.

For someone who retirement seems long, long way off this has been quite a journey of discovery. I hadn’t even considered it, let alone thought about what it might be like, whether I’d want to retire, what I’d lose, what I’d gain, what I might struggle with. Check out The After Work Clubto see what we created to try and tackle some of these issues.