Springschaft

How might we improve Irish society?

After graduating from NCAD, John and I set out to tackle a meaningful problem. Instead, we found a web of interconnected ones.

The hand-drawn Springschaft flyer, opened out across three panels

Research

We wanted to understand how people experienced modern Ireland from as many perspectives as possible. Books, conversations, workshops, surveys, and interviews helped us build a richer picture of the systems shaping everyday life.

A wall of annotated book covers, including Self-Sufficiency, Metaskills, Listen To The Land Speak and The Perfect Country.
Survey responses and primary research notes gathered from the public.

Synthesis & Analysis

As the research grew, we began organising ideas into themes and searching for relationships between them. Patterns started to emerge around purpose, learning, housing, community, and the tension between logic and emotion.

Clustering sticky notes across a wall.
Insights grouped into themes: Purpose, Reliance, Learning, Logic and Emotion, Housing.

Testing Our Thinking

Rather than treating our insights as conclusions, we shared them with others and invited criticism. The conversations helped us challenge assumptions, refine our thinking, and identify what resonated with people's lived experience.

The research summary poster.
Photos from the feedback workshop.
Written feedback from participants.
Notes reframing the insights.

What Is Actually Going On?

Having refined our insights, we stepped back and asked a bigger question.

What is actually going on here?

By mapping the relationships between our observations, we began to see a larger system emerge. Problems that initially seemed separate were deeply connected to one another.

[Mapping Systems.]

A systems diagram mapping relationships between insights. The hand-drawn systems map.

Communicating the Idea

As we explored potential interventions, we kept returning to the same conclusion.

We did not need a solution yet.

We needed a clearer explanation of the problem.

Our focus shifted from designing something new to communicating what we had learned.

[Iteration.]

Early design iterations. A refined layout. A later iteration.

Deliverables

We created a set of artefacts that documented the research and communicated our understanding of the systems shaping Irish society.

[Flyer.]

The Springschaft flyer.
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[Research Poster.]

The research summary poster.
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[Sources Booklet.]

The design sources booklet.
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[Mini Website.]

The Springschaft website.
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Reflection

Springschaft taught me that complex problems rarely exist in isolation.

The more we explored, the more we discovered relationships between people, communities, institutions, and the systems they operate within.

Most importantly, I learned that clarity creates alignment. People can only move forward together when they share an understanding of what is actually happening and what matters most.

Other Projects

The Autumn Society

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Hockey Media Belgium

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