Grandma, can I get a word in edgeways?

But it is often a one-way conversation, and that is the focus of her graduation project.

Gitte Lægaard is in close contact with her inner grandmother. She is only 26 years old but has been a visiting friend with DaneAge Association, a Danish organisation promoting the welfare of the elderly, and her projects at Design School Kolding have often concentrated on old age. Her grandmother’s old sweaters and an unknown man’s carpets have often been subject to loving interpretation, and now it is the words and the conversation that have been cut according to a new template. For there is a ‘but’ in her passion for life lived and year-long experiences.

- I think there is a tendency that it becomes a one-way conversation. I visit an elderly lady once a week and it often ends up with her talking and me listening. She means no harm by leading the conversation, but it may be difficult to find topics we can talk about on equal terms, and I think there is a tendency that young people hold back when faced with so much life experience. That is a pity, for I am convinced that many young people would like to talk to their grandparents and other elderly people, says Gitte Lægaard.

Common goods
Gitte Lægaard’s choices in life are unorthodox and surprising and not always obvious – neither her fascination with toil and aging nor the form of her graduation project. Gitte Lægaard has studied on the textiles line, but her key exam is about communication, and it is tempting to think that she has ended up in the wrong department and should have studied communication design. But no.

- The difference between my project and other communication projects is that my illustrations are sensual and that I have focussed on the craftsmanship. My product is created by hand, and I have used techniques from my work with textiles. But that is what is so exceptional about Design School Kolding, that we can do a graduation project that transcends our discipline, because we can draw on the common methods within design, says Gitte Lægaard.

A hit
But what is it she has created which has attracted both top grades and honour and glory? Gitte Lægaard has created a box full of illustrated cards which are meant to steer the conversation both ways. The cards are wordless because women of three generations – the project’s target group – are going to make their own associations and formulate text for the pictures. Like the rest of the graduates Gitte Lægaard has had a partner in business, and this time the choice was obvious - The Old Town Museum in Aarhus.

- The Old Town Museum has a flat from the 1970s and that is a huge hit. It includes many examples of what life was like 40 years ago. I visited it with my focus group in order to find categories of words in which we have a common interest and that we would like to talk about across generations, says Gitte Lægaard.

Next stop – men and foreigners
The young designer realised that fashion and trends, electronics, crafts, travel, food and beauty are some of the themes that interest women of all ages. Based on that insight Gitte Lægaard created a stack of cards in A 4 format and placed them in a box named Dialogue. Along the way Gitte Lægaard has also experimented with modern technology in the form of iPads, but it turned out that the conversation stalled when electronics were involved.

- It often ended up with the grandchild taking over the iPad and being the only one who was clicking on the images, or the elderly lady quickly browsing through the illustrations. Clearly it works best when we have the cards in our hands, says Gitte Lægaard. DaneAge Association has already expressed interest in the dialogue box, and Gitte Lægaard hopes that other institutions will realise the value of getting a two-way conversation going.

- The Old Town Museum has a memory flat for people with dementia, and it has turned out that the elderly remember a lot of things when they return to the environment in which they grew up. I hope that my cards, which include both new and old items, will open up for these hidden memories. In addition an obvious development would be to design cards targeted at men or foreigners. There are actually a lot of possibilities, says Gitte Lægaard.