'Design Re-Creation' - revolutionary project creatively driven by the Academy of Design.
The Academy of Design, South Asia's celebrated Design Campus, specializes in Professional Creative education in the major areas of Design including Fashion, Interiors, Graphics, Photography and Jewellery. AOD is a progressive organization that believes in exercising the power of creativity to its full potential, and has spearheaded ventures like the Sri Lanka Design Festival that plays a major role in the development of design in Sri Lanka and the South Asian region.

Design can serve as an important value addition to products and services. In addition, design and creativity can also play the role of an effective and mass-scale job provider and a poverty relief method. Understanding the crucial role that design could play in Sri Lanka's development, AOD has catalysed a special project involving the war-affected persons in the North and East regions of Sri Lanka. This project 'Design Re-Creation' places AOD's designers in direct contact with artisans. AOD's alumni and student body along with the college's principal - UK's fashion design talent Karen MacLeod and the Interior Design Programme Head of the college, American Interior Designer Joel Rapp deployed themselves in villages of Sri Lanka's North and East to work in direct contact with the artisans.

The project covers many traditional crafts like Rattan, Palmyra, Fabric Weaving and even freshly introduced crafts like Knitting. AOD's international design team is currently working with the war-affected communities in the villages of Marathamunai, Naruvizhikkulam, Paavulupattan, Kudiyirippu and many more in the Districts of Mannar, Jaffna, Batticaloa and Ampara. "The Sri Lankan government and several other parties have actually already set up craft centres in certain areas but, there has not been any consistent training or guidance in design or marketability to help these artisans equal their products with current market requirements. Therefore, as Sri Lanka's pioneering educator in design, we felt it's almost AOD's duty to help these communities and in turn, help Sri Lanka too." said Linda Speldewinde - Managing Director of AOD.

The products resulting from this project are to be marketed in the international market as high quality exports and will be given a special platform at the annual Sri Lanka Design Festival organized by the AOD too. American Designer Joel Rapp who heads the Interior Design faculty at the AOD said that the AOD design team encouraged the artisans to break away from the standard colours and forms that they use and introduced them to the current trends in the international markets. "These people have the skills and the crafts needed by many in Europe and North America. What we do is give them the vision and the guidance to match their skills with the existing market requirements. AOD is bridging the gap between the artisans' knowledge and International markets while creating new commercial links for Sri Lanka."

The 'Design Re-Creation' project has only started to transform the lives of many. "The best reward that comes with this project is to witness the amazing impact that it makes on the lives of these people. They really didn't think they were capable of making products sought after by high-end markets across the world - and to have us telling them that they can, and showing them how they can, has really made a change in their thinking, economies and lives. It is truly an amazing experience for us as designers and for AOD as a dynamic force in South Asian creativity," said Karen MacLeod, Principal of AOD.
www.aod.lk