Designer Margot Barolo receives Stockholm City Cultural Scholarship for The Kinship Method

The project was initiated and run by Margot Barolo, designer and program manager at Product design at Beckman College of Design and is part of Beckman's investment in artistic subject development.

Changing designer role and new ways of producing design 

In The Kinship Method, five designers challenge themselves and each other by trying new methods that create new knowledge and question the ideas of how design is created. In the long run, alternative designer roles and more ways of producing design arise. Ultimately, it is consumers who benefit from a more multifaceted and inclusive design that can also reach important groups that today are being sidelined. 

"The fact that the project is being recognised is a sign that there is a desire to see that there are alternative ways in design. The designer's role today rests on older structures that limit the designer's ability to participate in production. If we develop the conditions for designers and processes in production, amazing things could happen. New technological conditions open new doors. I hope that the project and the content of the book can inspire to see how design can be used as a means of influence and that the role of the designer is anything but static," says Margot Barolo. 

The project has been shown in exhibitions at Sven-Harry Art Museum and Rian Design Museum. Earlier this year, the book about the project was also published by Arvinius Orfeus Förlag. This autumn, the project will also be presented in a lecture series at Beckmans.

Artistic research at Beckmans 

In 2017, Beckman College of Design launched an artistic research initiative. Since then, three different research projects have been carried out which are linked to our educational areas product design, fashion and visual communication. The projects have been presented in different formats during 2020, while new research projects have been initiated.