Saffron’s co-production story

The Scope Awards are an annual celebration of individuals, community groups, businesses and role models who champion disability equality and inclusion. They recognise people who, in various ways, are working to make the world a place of truly equal opportunities, and they're unique because Scope strives to make every single part of the event co-produced with disabled people. The name, the creative identity, the criteria? All aspects of the award and ceremony are created WITH disabled people -  not FOR.

This year, Scope decided that the actual trophy needed updating and to feel as inclusive and 'SCOPE' as every other part of the event, and I had the opportunity to be a part of a panel responsible for its new design. I have been part of different 'design panels' before, but the whole experience of working in a group alongside Scope to create this design has felt really...like I was truly involved and valued.

We first met as a group to discuss the history of the event and brainstorm ideas for the design brief, which Scope sent to disabled designers. We all had different disabilities and different experiences, and brought our insight and unique perspectives. I feel like we all bounced so many ideas off each other, leading to new ideas for what a trophy could be and could represent. We thought about how to include braille, the material and weight, colours; we considered sustainability, practicality, and how much it represented Scope.

The Scope team took all of our thoughts and created a brief, and then came back to us with proposed designs from different artists. Each artist had been inspired by our brief and taken our thoughts in different ways, and while there were so many amazing ideas, we all loved the winning design. In our second meeting as a panel we gave further feedback on this design, and it really felt like co-production. Rather than a one-off thing without any follow up, this felt like a toing-and-froing, a relationship, and like what we wanted to see in the trophy was important.

The final trophy has the colour and energy of Scope's brand but looks like no other trophy - and has features also incredibly unique. It includes braille, is easy and adaptable to hold, sustainability has been considered when it comes to materials and is lightweight. We are now waiting for the final, final design, and it has been so exciting to see our discussion come to life.