ARTICLE | PRO BONO / NON-PROFIT WORK
PRO-BONO PROJECTS AT PAYETTE BY KAREN ROBICHAUD
Karen Robichaud Robichaud is Director of Creative Engagement at Payette. She joined Payette in 2012 as a graphic designer and has since led several communications initiatives from the ground up for the firm. From the outset, Karen established Payette as a leader among other architecture firms with its social media strategy, leveraging many voices across the firm. Karen is a member of the AIA COTE Communications Task Force and a volunteer for Equity. She is an active member of the BSA and chairs its Equity Roundtable.
Hospitals and other health care facilities can be incredibly stressful places to visit, even in the best of times. Our firm has long been committed to design excellence for health care, having designed hospitals and other facilities consistently throughout our 85-year history. Our commitment to high-caliber design for those in need is best embodied in some of our recent pro bono work. You Are Here: Wendy’s Welcome to the Emergency Department In 2016, we collaborated with Massachusetts General Hospital for Children (MGHfC) on a video that welcomes kids to the Emergency Department. Conceived by a longtime MGHfC patient, Wendy Wooden, and her mom, Darcy Daniels, with the help of the hospital’s Family Advisory Council, the video aims to make emergency visits less stressful for patients. Wendy and Darcy came up with the idea of providing a welcome guide for kids and families when a friend found themselves in the ED for the first time. It turned out that after various health crises, Wendy and Darcy were pros at what to expect. Our team transformed a written narrative into a nine-minute animated video that introduces kids to the ED and explains what to expect when receiving treatment. Drawing on the talents of over 20 people in our firm, this video features originally composed music, photography, time-lapse videography, digitized sketching, and voice-over narration by Wendy, who is still a child herself. The video not only pushed the way we approach multimedia opportunities, it also paired senior and emerging staff in project leadership. Recent graduates joining the firm had the opportunity to develop design processes, train others, and advocate for design solutions. Since MGHfC started using the video in October 2016, ED doctors and nurses have attested to its ability to calm patients and families. Each year, the Pediatric ED sees nearly 14,000 visitors, who are
all now welcomed by a real kid, just like them. Watch the video: payette.co/2fHJswx. The project gave several of the firm’s emerging designers opportunities to stretch their wings, taking on job-captain roles, devising team workflow, and strengthening drawing skills. Three of our core team members shared insight into their experiences. Mike Lee, designer On his role and how it’s influenced him as a designer: I have always tinkered in animation, often in support of my architectural work. Therefore, my understanding of the tools and workflows ended up pushing me into a "Job Captain" type role. This made me responsible for offering workflow strategies, delegating and coordinating production efforts, and compiling the final deliverable. I also produced specialty assets such as a particle simulation. Prior to this project, I hadn't really influenced anyone's workflow other than my own. To coordinate the overall production effort was a level of responsibility that encouraged me to mature as a designer and has given me the confidence to seek out greater responsibility in my architectural work, and it helped develop the skill set to execute that coordination with efficacy. On how this project impacted his perspective on designing for health care: Health care design seems to be a tricky balance between maximizing utility for workers and providing safe and peaceful environments for patients. It's a complex dichotomy when you get into all of the systems that push and pull on design decisions. The impact this project has on my perspective on health care design is a simplification of all that minutiae by reminding me that complicated design decisions are built on simple, humanistic values.
OPPOSITE: CHARACTER DESIGN SKETCHES AND SCENE FROM THE EMERGENCY ROOM VISIT ANIMATION -- Courtesy of Payette
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