In this workshop, we’ll question the assumptions of what a gift can be, talk about who stands to gain (and who is harmed) by thinking about gifting in a certain way, call up memories of meaningful presents we’ve received, and develop a shared taxonomy for gifting, in order to make space for a euphoric kind of giving. Then we’ll use that space to brainstorm and design a gift for a friend or loved one, and take what we’ve learned from the exercise and apply it to our everyday practice of making.

• Come prepared with an idea of a person you'd like to gift something to
• Understand what makes a good gift, and how to make the practice of gift-giving creative and delightful, rather than burdensome
• Develop a framework for thinking about what makes meaningful gifts meaningful
• Brainstorm some ideas for gifts born out of playing close attention to your subject
• Leave with some skills you can take to your other work

• Reflect on the most and least meaningful gifts you've ever received
• Use that as a jumping off point to discuss what makes a good gift tick
• Map out your subject and use storytelling to introduce them to your peers
• Use oblique strategies to brainstorm gift ideas in small groups
• Think about how to use packaging and the ceremony of giving to elevate the meaning of the gift
• Talk about how we can bring some of these methods back to our other creative practices

“Real giving had its joy in imagining the joy of the receiver. It means choosing, expending time, going out of one's way, thinking of the other as a subject: the opposite of distraction.”

Clive Dilnot, The Gift

Elan is a Pittsburgh-based designer and educator currently leading the product team at a nonprofit criminal justice news organization called The Marshall Project and teaching design at Chatham University in Pittsburgh. Elan runs a pop-up design studio that funnels its profits to mutual aid projects, and obsesses over the least visited corners of the internet in the newsletter Deep Sea Diving.