we’re starting a new internship program,

here’s what i’m thinking:
as a vegan design studio, we want to create a culture of people sensitive to their environment,
a culture of people who cannot do harm,
a culture of people who are connected to nature and life around them,
a culture of people who aim for a world without suffering.

* i would like to call this a culture of slight spirituality.
and spirituality is not religion,
it is very far away from religion.
it’s not a sect either.

* by spirituality i don’t mean rules and regulation,
i don’t decide what’s right or wrong,
people just have a sensitivity to what’s harmful and what’s helpful,
an awareness of what not to do, and of what to do.”
two people wouldn’t argue about whether they should do this or not.
they just know. no one decides.
this is what i mean by slight spirituality.

and this is where the internship program starts. each intern or group of interns look for an event, activity, campaign, program, etc.
this activity should help towards creating this culture of slight spirituality.

activities could be vegan restaurants (or kiosks),
positive thinking,
meditations,
tree planting,
promoting cycling,
eco-farms,
Deep Democracy,
etc.

they cannot be anti-something.
they have to be pro-something.
for example:
they cannot be anti-war, nor anti-smoking, nor anti-racism, nor anti-violence, etc.
in other words, they have to promote an alternative to things we don’t like.
also in other words, we don’t want to talk about the things we’re against,
and we don’t want to fight the things that are harmful.
we just want to promote the things we are with.

after the intern finds the activity he would like to promote,
he’ll contact the organization or group that is organizing the activity,
and propose to design the communication materials for free.
if the organization agrees, then the job of the intern is to design the communication materials of his choice.

while working on the project, interns will benefit from the direct expert advice and experience of team .:there for design… (from people in lebanon and the UK). they will benefit from experts in communication, in the way the mind works, and in making sure the messages come across to the audience. so, we do require that interns are highly motivated and have a genuine care to getting messages across in a clear and appealing manner.

we also promote collaborative design. this means that we don’t believe that we are gods of communication, and that we know it all. and whenever possible, we involve clients, audience, and people from various fields in the project, and we allow them to design and communicate the message(s). along the way, we act as facilitators, making sure things head in the right direction.

.:there for design… will cover whatever project expenses we are comfortable with covering,
and/or we can collaborate with the organization to share expenses.
projects will be published under .:there for design… with credit to the designer(s) under a
creative commons license for everyone to re-use.

that way, .:there for design… will be collaborating free-of-charge with everyone who is contributing towards this culture of slight spirituality.

what do you think?
i’d love to know your thoughts, whether you like the idea or not (both ways, do leave your comment below).

much love and play,
william