Participative Creative is a strategic approach to co-creation that balances stakeholder input with creative direction.

Optimist clients have used our Participative Creative approach to:

  • Co-create new brands and visual identity

  • Support global work to decolonise fundraising

  • Test creative ideas with their communities

  • Involve and engage staff, trustees and supporters in developing brand purpose statements

  • Discover supporter motivations, beliefs and values

We use a blend of techniques depending on the project scope, budget and schedule, working closely with your team to design the right process for you. These include:

ONE-To-ONE INTERVIEWS

A series of 45 minute interviews with stakeholders to identify specific audience or business priorities, needs and expectations. Participants will include representatives from:

  • Senior Leadership Team members 

  • Supporters

  • Channel Owners - social, web, email, print

  • Inhouse creative teams

  • Institutional partners 

  • Individual supporters

  • Service users

These sessions are conducted online with questions shared in advance, recorded and results played back to core steering group.

participative creative CAN HELP you:

AMPLIfy LIVED EXPERIENCE. BE GUIDED by AUDIENCES. co-create YOUR BRAND. BRING STAKEHOLDERS WITH YOU. UNCOVER new INSIGHTS. FIND different PERSPECTIVES. LIVE out YOUR VALUES.

DIGITAL
CO-CREATION

A period of creative development taking thematic areas into early visual concepts. These usual take the form of print and digital stimulus to show thinking in practice. Typically 3 distinct routes are developed to enable discussion, input and suitability to be explored. 

Depending on the project this includes either: 

A. Creative workshop (earlier, thematic, direction-setting)

Carefully curated session exploring thematic areas from the discovery stage bringing together service users to participate in the creative process. This takes the form of a XXXXXX

B. Digital co-creation tool (later, feedback gathering and builds)

We develop visuals infront of various stakeholders and gather feedback and preference to discover preferences, gain insight and stress testing thinking. 

“the optimist co-creation process help us to make a major shift in our fundraising thinking. it uncovered language, ideas and beliefs that helped us build the new proposition together.”

— Rafa Sanchis, Fundraising Director, Oxfam International

CREATIVE WORKSHOPS

A series of 45 minute conversations with stakeholders to identify specific strategicm audience or business needs and expectations for the visual identity project. Participants will include representatives from:

  • Senior Leadership Team members 

  • Volunteers

  • Channel Owners - social, web, email, print

  • Makers  

  • Institutional partners 

  • Individual supporters (action takers)

  • Service users

These sessions are conducted online with questions shared in advance, recorded and results played back to core steering group.