Hope For The Young Workshop & Merch Design

I was invited to host a unique workshop during March 2024 for Hope For The Young, a charity that provides mentoring, advocacy and financial support to young refugees and asylum-seekers in the UK.

The brief was to host one of my usual workshops, but to also have a collaborative design, usable for merch, at the end. I pitched and ran a two-part session:

Part 1, to draw what hope and home meant to them on paper, in a visual brainstorm session. This part was to gather design elements that I’d use to create the merch artwork, compiling their line drawings to digitise and compose the pieces you see below.

Part 2, a tote bag workshop, where the mentees and mentors customised canvas bags with paints, embroidery threads and beads. They could use the design ideas they had sketched out on paper already, or come up with a new design, to take home as their very own tote bag design.

The collection was launched and ready to buy just ahead of Refugee Week 2024, with 100% of sales' profits going towards Hope for the Young's work supporting young refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

You can support and check out the collection here: https://hope-for-the-young.teemill.com