Kelly Costello
& Galileo Scholastic Academy
Kelly Costello & Galileo Scholastic Academy

This project began as a collaboration between the Student Voice Committee (SVC) at Galileo Scholastic Academy and a team of graduate design students in my class at IIT’s Institute of Design. The ID students facilitated a design project to explore options for re-imagining the school library. Thus, KRE8 Studio, a new approach to a school library, was conceptualized. 

Inspired by the idea of KRE8 Studio, Connie Amon, the school librarian decided to create a mobile maker stations. With that goal in mind, two teams of students from Segal Design Institute of Northwestern University took on the challenge of designing prototypes for mobile maker stations. The mobile stations support “studios” for robotics, electronics, circuitry, production, animation, design, and digital fabrication (3D printing). Students have now placed two prototypes at Galileo Scholastic and the next phase of our CPS Lives project is to understand how these are performing and create improvements in the next iteration of these mobile maker stations.

 

Project Overview

  • __typename —

  • Artist — Kelly Costello

  • School — Galileo Scholastic Academy of Math & Science

  • Neighborhood — Little Italy

  • Medium — Photography

  • null —

What should a contemporary school library be? This question set the stage for an interesting design challenge. 

The projects represents a collaboration across several schools and groups of students: 

– 6 graduate students in design at the Institute of Design – 12 grade school students who participated in the Student Voice Committee at Galileo Scholastic – 8 engineering undergraduates at the Segal Design School at Northwestern University 

These students worked with Connie Amon, the librarian at Galileo Scholastic Academy, to envision what the future of a school library could be. 

The project started in March 2018 with the Observing Users class at the Institute of Design. They met with the Student Voice Committee (SVC), a volunteer group composed of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students at Galileo Scholastic Academy of Math & Science to tackle the design challenge of how to “improve” the library while learning how to use design methods and tools to solve problems.

The Process for Designing the Library involved several stages of work: 

RESEARCH To understand the problem, the students observed how the library is currently being used, looking at different aged students using it, what are they doing while they are there, what objects are they using and how they move around the space. 

UNDERSTANDING After reviewing the research data, the team created a clearer picture of opportunities for improvement. Key among them were physical improvements, new activities, and flow through the space. Pulling together observations helped the team identify places for innovation. 

IDEAS In a couple of brainstorming sessions, ID students, along with Galileo faculty and students, unleashed their creativity to change the library into something new, exciting and future focused. Three different sessions for developing ideas tapped into different audiences, the SVC, the ID team and fellow ID students with the principal and librarian at Galileo. The result was a concept called KRE8 Studio – a place where creativity flourishes in many forms – from new curricula and tools to changes in the physical space and furniture. 

PROTOTYPING The next step after coming up with concepts was creating prototypes. Inspired by the possibilities inherent in KRE8 Studio, Connie Amon, the librarian, and Meredith Bawden, the principal applied for grants to bring some of the ideas to life. Tying the math and science focus of the school to the new vision led Connie to experiment with the maker space concept. Given classroom and other constraints, a mobile solution was deemed the right start. 

That is where engineering students from Northwestern University entered the picture. Through a project in a Design Thinking & Communication class, 2 student teams created prototypes for mobile maker carts to be used at Galileo Scholastic. The carts support a variety of “studios” as Connie termed them. 

NEXT STEPS The first round of solutions are now in place and being used at the school. This phase of our CPS Lives project is being used to learn more about what does and doesn’t work with the current prototypes, then design the next and final iteration. We are pulling together a narrative that tells the complete journey of this project.

 

Meet the Artist

Kelly Costello

Portrait by Devina Yoestong

Kelly Costello splits her time between running her own design firm, Panorama Innovation, and teaching at several universities, including Northwestern University, Institute of Design (IIT), and the executive education program at CEDIM design school in Mexico. Her company frequently hires CAP-X students from the School of the Art Institute to help with various design projects, including the final phase of this project for CPS Lives. Kelly now focuses much of her work on civic innovation and design coaching for Bloomberg Philanthropies. She holds a Master of Design from IIT’s Institute of Design and a Designing Your Life coaching certificate, a program which uses design thinking to re-imagine one’s future. 

Karishma is a budding designer with an entrepreneurial mindset, who leverages problem-solving skills, user-centric approach, and research into creating socially conscious designs. As a Bachelor of Fine Arts student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), she has presented her works at international summits, most notably the Bio design Challenge 2018 at the Museum of Modern Art. She has also collaborated with government bodies to work on design solutions concerning public health and environmental problems. New challenges inspire her.

 

Visit their Website

Kelly Costello splits her time between running her own design firm, Panorama Innovation, and teaching at several universities, including Northwestern University, Institute of Design (IIT), and the executive education program at CEDIM design school in Mexico. Her company frequently hires CAP-X students from the School of the Art Institute to help with various design projects, including the final phase of this project for CPS Lives. Kelly now focuses much of her work on civic innovation and design coaching for Bloomberg Philanthropies. She holds a Master of Design from IIT’s Institute of Design and a Designing Your Life coaching certificate, a program which uses design thinking to re-imagine one’s future. 

Karishma is a budding designer with an entrepreneurial mindset, who leverages problem-solving skills, user-centric approach, and research into creating socially conscious designs. As a Bachelor of Fine Arts student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), she has presented her works at international summits, most notably the Bio design Challenge 2018 at the Museum of Modern Art. She has also collaborated with government bodies to work on design solutions concerning public health and environmental problems. New challenges inspire her.

 

Visit their Website

Portrait by Devina Yoestong

Previous Residency

Jaclyn Silverman & East Side Volume One

Next Residency

Sa Schloff & Mather High School

Donate

Each donation supports our organization, our artists, and the schools we work with! All donations are greatly appreciated, no matter the amount, your contribution helps CPS Lives make a difference!