Engagement at Cody Dock Spring Forward
What’s your connection to the river? If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing, what would it be? What’s the most exciting thing you’ve seen on the river? At Cody Dock’s Spring Forward event, we’ve asked these questions by way of a giant sketch across three boards, with spaces to write and coloured markers to write with.
It’s the fourth time I’ve worked with Cody Dock in this way – and a lot goes into making it look effortless, welcoming and fun. At Cody Dock, there’s consideration of what site might invite the best answers, of the practicalities of installation and of what’s needed on the day. My job is part designer, roughing out in advance how the text and the illustration’s spaces might work, part live illustrator (I turn up early and it’s scary – with Posca marker on blackboard paint, I get one go at it) and part facilitator, coaxing people in to get involved and helping turn conversations into thoughts on the boards.
There’s a place for questionnaires. But what I love about Cody Dock’s thinking boards are the answers we’re not expecting. The first answer? “Frogs”.
