Listening, Translating, and Making Space: Tell Us Your Story
Some of my most meaningful work happens quietly, through listening.
Tell Us Your Story was a community-centred project developed with ACTS, designed to create space for people to share lived experience in their own words, and to have those stories held with care, clarity, and respect.
My role in the project sat across several overlapping areas: visual identity, digital design, creative facilitation, and reflective documentation. Rather than treating these as separate tasks, I approached them as one connected process.
Building a visual language
At the outset, I designed the project’s logo and visual identity. The aim wasn’t to brand people’s stories, but to create a visual language that felt open, human, and trustworthy — something that could hold a wide range of voices without imposing a tone or agenda.
This visual framework was then carried through into the website design, where accessibility, clarity, and calmness were central. The site needed to feel like a place where people could arrive gently and speak honestly.
Listening as a creative act
A core part of the project involved listening to participants’ stories. These conversations weren’t treated as content to be extracted, but as moments of connection and trust. My role was to listen attentively, reflect back what I heard, and ensure each person felt seen and respected in how their story was represented.
For many participants, the process of telling their story — and being listened to without judgement — became an opportunity to reflect, notice patterns, and gain new insights into their own lives and experiences.
From these conversations, I created a series of artistic responses — visual expressions shaped by the themes, emotions, and textures of the stories themselves. These weren’t illustrations of people’s experiences, but creative translations in response to them.
Translating stories across contexts
Alongside the creative work, I updated and maintained the project website as stories were shared, ensuring they were presented clearly and sensitively. I also gathered and organised participant feedback, translating qualitative experiences into reflective insights that could be shared with funders and stakeholders.
This aspect of the work was about care and accountability — holding the human reality of the project while also meeting the practical needs of reporting and evaluation.
Why this project matters to my practice
Tell Us Your Story reflects how I work more broadly: bringing together design, listening, facilitation, and creative response to support people and organisations in articulating what matters to them.
It sits at the intersection of art, branding, and community-rooted practice — where process is as important as outcome, and where making becomes a way of noticing, connecting, and honouring lived experience.
You can explore the project here:
Tell Us Your Story — ACTS