← All projects

2025 · Completed · Case study

Facilitating Participatory Design

Challenge

Create a visual identity that genuinely reflected the young people involved, balancing individual ideas with a shared brand the whole group could own.

Solution

Designed and facilitated a structured co-design process that guided participants from initial ideas through collaborative refinement to a practical, community-owned visual identity.

Impact

Young people shaped the identity of their own organisation, creating a brand that has since been adopted across digital media, printed materials and merchandise.

The Challenge

The Queen's Hall wanted a visual identity for Young Promoters Pembrokeshire that genuinely reflected the young people involved. Rather than commissioning a logo in isolation, the challenge was to create a collaborative design process that transformed individual ideas into a shared identity.

Context

The Queen's Hall Narberth runs Young Promoters Pembrokeshire, a youth-led initiative that gives young people opportunities to shape live music and cultural events in their community. As part of the programme, participants wanted a visual identity that reflected who they were and what they stood for. Rather than presenting a finished concept, the project centred on creating an inclusive design process where every participant could contribute.

Constraints

Shared Ownership The final identity needed to represent the group rather than the preferences of any one participant or designer.

Creative Confidence Participants arrived with different levels of artistic confidence and design experience.

Practical Identity The final logo needed to remain simple, memorable and suitable for digital, print and merchandise.

Consensus Many ideas needed to be explored, discussed and refined into a single direction.

Design Strategy

I designed and facilitated a series of participatory workshops that enabled young people to generate, evaluate and refine ideas collectively. My role was to structure the process, synthesise recurring themes and translate them into a coherent visual identity while preserving genuine ownership by the group.

Design Process

Discovery Workshop

Collaborative Ideation

Theme Mapping

Concept Development

Group Feedback

Identity Refinement

Final Brand

The Solution

A collaboratively developed visual identity created through a structured workshop process. Individual ideas were synthesised into a coherent brand that reflected the group's shared values while remaining practical for digital media, print and merchandise. The process was documented so participants could clearly see how their contributions influenced the final outcome.

"The role of a designer isn't always to provide the answer; sometimes it's to create the conditions for other people to find it."

Impact

Young people directly shaped the identity of their own organisation rather than receiving a designer-led solution. The final branding was adopted by Young Promoters Pembrokeshire and introduced across promotional materials and merchandise, giving the group a stronger sense of ownership and recognition.

Looking Ahead

The project reinforced that successful participatory design depends as much on facilitation as creativity. The strongest ideas rarely emerged from a single sketch; they developed through discussion, refinement and combining perspectives. Designing the process was just as important as designing the final identity.