Mother and Child
École Supérieure d’Art et Design de Saint–Étienne (4 th and 5 th year), France
Collaboration
Students from the 4 th and 5 th year of École Supérieure d’Art et Design de Saint – Etienne (ESADSE) conducted a project with the Saint‐Etienne hospital. The “Mother and Child” project is part of a bigger project called “Culture at the hospital”. The project was to identify the “Mother and Child” unit within the whole group of buildings of the Saint‐Etienne hospital.
The project proposed a catalogue of convivial, friendly and game‐like signage system in order to make the hospital environment more welcoming: facilitating the access to the “Mother and child” unit. Working on the interior design is a way of taking care of the children, men and women passing through or staying at the hospital, for work or for a visit.
NB: As “signage”, we intend the whole collection of graphics and signs created to give a graphic identity and display information such as way finding inside or outside the hospital.
Benefit for partners
‐ The opportunity for the future creative professionals to take part in a transformation that holds the social and economic upheavals encouraged by the continuous development of technologies.
‐ The opportunity for the hospital to enhance their cultural policy and to give new directions to this policy: the project was proposed to the national call for projects “Culture and Hospital 2006‐2008” and has been integrated in the Saint‐Etienne hospital general objectives and programme for the years 2008‐2013. Moreover, this project has been acknowledged at a national level: together with about 20 realisations, it has been selected amongst more than 90 projects as an exemplar for cultural initiatives in hospital and has been analysed in a publication recording 10 years of arts and culture in the French hospitals.
Impact on education
The curriculum
This partnership has been realised in the specific context of a hospital: a public service for the community. An open context welcoming different kinds of publics in a protected and restricted area.
Through this partnership, this particular place has introduced a new, experimental and creative project realised by a group of students. The partnership realised a project within a complex organisation. It required special attention, in order to take into account the demands of an administration with many rules and restrictions, the demands of the medical and nursing staffs, and the demands of the patients at the same time.
The project didn’t have an impact on the organisation of ESADSE since a methodology of partnership already exists. Since 1990 the ESADSE has developed structural co‐operations with outside partners, following some rules:
‐ the projects must have an obvious interest for the courses content;
‐ the outside partners must accept the particular schedule and delays of such co‐operation;
‐ the project must not create competition with graduates (professional designers). That means the partner must pay an allocation and hire students in case they want to further develop the project;
‐ in theory, the school doesn’t make a second project with the same partner.
Teaching methodologies
The project had a reduced impact on the content of the school programme, since it was built on the basis of course content and methodology already existing at ESADSE: graphic design, publishing and
IT workshops were at the heart of the work performed with the hospital. artesnetEurope | Strand One: Creative Partnerships | Case Studies

Nevertheless, the hospital and the medical environment are not so familiar with design. It represented a specific and quite unusual application field for the design course. This project gave therefore a further openness to the teaching. It was also the opportunity for the students to work in a real situation with specific demands and requirements, concrete users, and deliveries to communicate to the hospital team.
It didn’t modify so much the organisation of teaching, since this project was organised as a workshop, which as a course typology already exist at ESADSE. Nevertheless, a specific group of students has been formed to work on this project for its duration, and great attention to the co‐ ordination with the hospital was needed in order to make the collaboration work.
Assessment
Teachers in charge of graphic design and publishing assessed the work performed by the students participating in this project.
Artistic criteria and regular assessment procedures led the teachers’ assessment and grades.
On the other hand, another kind of assessment has been made, without any influence on the students’ grades and curriculum: the hospital team chose the most adapted and appreciated signage system amongst the several proposals made by the students and decided to realise it.
Impact on community
The project made the world of art meet the medical world. It created mutual meetings, exchanges and talks with the medical and nursing staff about their expectations. This project intended to open the artist’s eyes to the possibilities with art in the outer world.
For the moment, the hospital is working with the selected students‐ now graduated designers‐ for the concrete and overall realisation of the chosen signage project. The expected impact of the signage, which is a collection of adhesive pictograms, is to create a more comfortable and less anxiogenic environment:
‐ identifying the Mother and Child unit and finding ones own way inside is easier;
‐ the colourful and figurative elements creates an aesthetic and friendly environment;
‐ the installation of the adhesive pictograms system can be made by the children staying at the hospital, together with the hospital team and the families. The signage becomes a game.
Economic benefit
The hospital gave the ESADSE a €7000 allocation which had to be used for the publication of a catalogue showing the various projects proposed by the students.
Future: The hospital is currently working with the students who proposed the chosen project ‐and who have been now graduated ‐ for the realisation of the signage inside the Mother and Child unit.
Thanks to the benefits created by this first collaboration, the hospital would like to work again with the ESADSE and the departments of research and local development of the Cité du Design. The project will consist in working on signage, objects or service design proposals for the children medical unit, which also receives disabled children. The project would be realised from 2010 to 2012 with 4th and 5th year design students and their teachers. It will include observation sessions in the hospital, meetings and workshops involving the hospital team, child patients, students and teachers together, and creation and realisation workshops for students and teachers.
Knowledge transfer
There has been a knowledge transfer from the hospital team to the students and teachers about a sophrologic approach developed by the medical sector towards their target public ‐ here the children. The project has been progressively transformed following this new acquired knowledge. artesnetEurope | Strand One: Creative Partnerships | Case Studies

Vice versa it is difficult to know if the hospital team acquired new knowledge from the students and teachers, since the project was an answer to the hospital demand, with the constraint of their particular needs. Nevertheless, one can suppose that the hospital team has become aware of some signage questions, since they asked for a new collaboration in this domain.
This project gave the students the opportunity of increasing their analysis of an existing situation, working on a project study that crossed technically open requirements and a rich sociologic environment. The students learnt to make a functional and critical analysis of a place combining important service imperatives and public use.
Strength
Project realised entirely thanks to great support: publication, final realisation, etc.
A collaborative project managed and realised in co‐operation with the medical staff.
Openness of the response given by ESADSE to the hospital demand: a catalogue of proposals, with the possibility for the users to choose one of the solutions.
A systemic, global project that gave the possibility of thinking about the overall aspect of the signage question for a hospital department.
Weakness
This project is a demonstration of an a posteriori integration of the direction and signage questions in the hospital building, which gave reduced possibilities of harmonisation with the architectural programme. artesnetEurope | Strand One: Creative Partnerships | Case Studies