As an Industrial Designer I am used to meet big names in the design community with equally big egos. So when I met Ian Drysdale from Think Public in their headquarters in East London it was refreshing to hear so many times the words we and them instead of the remarkably frequent me, myself and I from the creative industry.

Drysdale is a passionate social innovator and has been involved in Think Public for over two years leading several projects successfully. When I asked him what was the secret behind the success of TP he pointed out three principles that shape their philosophy and approach to social projects;

Active Healthy Living. This refers to the creation of preventive systems where the services' role is to act on the causes of the problems in order to eliminate them instead of looking to solve the symptoms of those problems.

Human Government. To eliminate the intermediates between the services and the users, in other words, less bureaucracy. Human governed services have the advantage of a faster and autonomous repair. This repair process is based in the own experience and the solutions are more accurate and bespoke to their particular needs.

Social Potential. Increasing the awareness around the social enterprise and the urgent need of exploring new ways to address its challenges is an essential aspect of Think Public philosophy. They dedicate lots of time and effort to communicate and spread their message to the social and other sectors.

In 2007 Think Public was invited by Design of the Times 07 (Dott 07) to participate in Alzehimer 100 a project to improve the daily life of people diagnosed with dementia. Their innovative approach and the use of different methodologies allowed them to collect valuable information and insights from the users: After a first stage of interviews they held a workshop where the patients were trained in film-making and interviewing skills. Later the patients were left to interview themselves and record those interviews. The data obtained from this clips were an invaluable asset to the investigative process and facilitated a better communication of the real needs of the patients.

Think Public's work methodology moves towards a more and more collaborative relationship with the institutions and with the users by "keeping the projects grounded in the experience of the people (users)" as Ian points out as one of the learning outcomes from the Alzehimer 100 project.

Thanks again for this meeting, I will be meeting Ian again during the next weeks for a formal interview where we'll be joined by Deborah Szebeko, the founder of Think Public and will be posting my insights here.

For more information about Think Public and Alzehimer 100 project visit Think Public's site www.thinkpublic.com