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A Year of Creative Co-Design: Celebrating ORIGIN’s WP 4 and the Creative Research Assistants 

As the summer draws to a close, we’re marking a bittersweet milestone in the ORIGIN project: the terrific Creative Research Assistants (CRAs) are finishing their time with Lab4Living. We’re immensely grateful for all their dedication, creativity, and contributions over the past year, and we’re excited to see the stories they have developed with young people being shared in the ORIGIN platform. 

Thank You to the Creative Research Assistants 

Over the past year, our CRAs immersed themselves in storytelling, co-design, and creative exploration, bringing alive diverse narratives for young people’s mental wellbeing. We welcomed seven talented individuals at the start of the journey: Sophie Cochrane-Powell, Jamie Creese, Elizabeth Hopwood, Kerry Lindeque, Chelsie Martin, Shakthi Thyagarajan, and Joseph Winstanley. Their backgrounds span journalism, folklore, media, creative writing and performance, each enriching ORIGIN with fresh perspectives and imaginative flair. 

Highlights from Work Package 4 

  • Co-Design Kit: In March 2025, the CRAs unveiled a pioneering Co-Design Kit, a toolkit brimming with creative prompts and resources to help young people co-design the second iteration of our “Ways of Being” platform. The reception was enthusiastic, and the kit served its purpose in supporting young people to research their own stories they wanted to see developed as part of the project.  
  • Storytelling in Multiple Mediums: Storytelling was rich with experimentation: videos, animations, podcasts, illustrated books, written pieces – the CRAs pushed boundaries in storytelling to deliver content that is engaging, diverse, and resonant. 
  • Interviews with Young People: Through interviews with individuals aged 16–24, the CRAs captured vital insights into how users responded to the first “Ways of Being” platform. These findings have helped our CRA’s improve their story content and formats and will inform the UX and design strategies that partners, including Imagineear, will take into developing the ORIGIN platform. 
  • Podcast: Beyond the Archives: Sophie Cochrane-Powell supported by Shakthi Thyagarajan produced, directed, hosted, and edited the “Beyond the Archives” podcast series, delving into the creative processes behind ORIGIN, archive searches, storytelling ethics, and the personal resonance of narratives. It’s still available to listeners on Spotify.  
  • Exhibition: Beyond the Archives: Culminating a year’s worth of craft and narrative exploration, the CRAs presented a four-day exhibition called “Beyond the Archives” at the Old Post Hall, Sheffield Hallam University, on Wednesday 27 August. This exhibition showcased the journey of story creation, from archive sourcing to writing, podcasting, and visual storytelling.  
An introduction to the story development process in the ORIGIN project.
A look into the creative methods used in developing a story at the exhibition.
Co-Design Kit elements and post-its with feedback spread out on a table at the exhibition.
Co-Design Kit elements displayed at the exhibition.
Co-Design Kit the CRAs developed at the exhibition
A creative interpretation of Lorina Bulwer’s needlework by CRA Kerry Lindeque.
Setting up the ‘Beyond the Archive’ exhibition
Refreshments at the ‘Beyond the Archive’ exhibition’s Opening Night
A creative interpretation of a story sent in by a co-designer, developed by CRA Joe Winstanley

Looking Ahead 

With the completion of Work Package, the project transitions into developing the second iteration of the platform. While WP 4 centred on content building, experimentation, feedback, and co-design groundwork, next stages will now focus on integrating those outputs into the platform’s next phase – shaping UX based on user insights, enhancing engagement, and preparing for launch and evaluation. Thanks to the CRAs, this next chapter starts from a strong, creative, and user-informed position. 

A Heartfelt Thank You 

To our Creative Research Assistants: your energy, passion, and creativity have made ORIGIN what it is today. From podcasts to co-design tools, each of you brought something unique. Thank you for your hard work, your storytelling, your willingness to co-create with young people, and your commitment to making a difference in mental wellbeing through arts and culture. 

Here’s to stepping forward to the next phase of ORIGIN, where the platform will be tested, and building on the foundations you helped create. From all of us at Lab4Living, we wish a big thank you and good luck to our CRAs.  

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