Some reflections on the process of converting research insights into a creative resource

In May 2022, I received funding from the Wellcome Trust for a fellowship project comparing how inequalities get framed for action across different policy domains. The thinking behind the study was that health, as a sector, is not alone in grappling with how to realise action on the underlying causes of inequalities. So there could be value in learning from the experiences and the framing debates that are playing out in other fields.

In previous posts, I've described how the project evolved during its first year as I came to appreciate some fundamental tensions and issues with the original idea and study design. At the outset of the research, I was very fixated on looking for dominant and competing 'causal stories' around inequalities across the cases. However, I soon learned that when people are questioning dominant accounts of inequalities, they are doing much more than simply offering up a competing causal story for an agreed upon problem. Very often they are challenging more fundamental aspects of institutionalised approaches to putting shape on problems, and advancing ideas for how these could be reimagined.

A central ambition of the project had always been to produce visually creative and interactive materials (based on the learning from the earlier phases of the research) that could support cross-sectoral dialogue and critical reflection on the nature of the challenge of responding to inequalities, and what needs to change. I've been working with a fantastic local illustrator here in the North West, Charlotte Caswell, to create such a resource and in this post I wanted to share some reflections on the process. The resource is called "Rethinking the thinking on inequalities". It is still a work-in-progress and I'm currently getting feedback on the first iteration that can be downloaded in full from here. I would love to hear any thoughts you have on the visual metaphors and how they are presented (e.g., what do they do well, what isn't quite working in this format): n.mcmahon1@lancaster.ac.uk.

Learning 1: There is no such thing as too simple

When I first sat down with Charlotte, I had in mind to create just one image that could capture the key insights I had gleaned from my reviews of the literature (these are currently being written up for publication). The central metaphor for that image was to be a processing plant that would illustrate how complex, messy realities get converted (within individual silos) into 'square' problems that legitimise superficial or conservative responses to inequalities. The black and white image below is one of the earliest drafts and, as you can imagine, we quickly realised that I trying to include far too many points in a single visual and also doing this in an unnecessarily complicated way. Through numerous iterations I really learned the value of stripping back the messaging and simplifying the imagery. The processing plant is still a central feature of the booklet but it now appears in a simplified 2D format, split across three different images on separate pages, where each image focuses on one key point. The last of the three images is shown below.

Revised illustration

Early draft of processing plant visual

Learning 2: Don't limit yourself to a single metaphor

Example metaphors for the invisible background thinking of institutions

During the early stages of sketching out ideas, I was very attached to this processing plant metaphor and was trying to make it work for all of the points I had in mind to communicate. Charlotte came up with some great ideas for how we might do this. So, for example, to illustrate the taken-for-granted ways of seeing the world, knowledge, and social action that dominate within our institutions, we thought about showing how the processing plant tends to 'mine for' or 'be powered by' particular forms of 'raw material'.

However, this was further complicating an already busy image and I'm very grateful to Elena Semino, one of my excellent mentors and our resident expert on metaphor at Lancaster University, for helping me to relax my attachment to a single metaphor, and instead commit to finding the right metaphor (or a selection of metaphors) for the different points that I was trying to communicate. Two examples that I settled on to capture this idea of the background thinking of institutions are shown here.

Learning 3: Pictures can speak a thousand words but they can't do everything

What also became clear in the drafting phase was that I naïve about what a set of illustrations alone could achieve, and that it was unrealistic to think that their meaning would be self-evident to readers or that they would 'speak for themselves'. For example, this image is intended to capture an idea about how we can avoid defaulting to making people the 'object' of our inquiries or interventions, and instead fundamentally shift our perspective by metaphorically standing at people's shoulders and looking out and up into the institutions, rules, and relations that are shaping their lives. Without accompanying text however, this simply would not be clear. Creating a full narrative to go with the evolving set of illustrations posed a new challenge that required careful consideration of the order in which they appeared. I found this stage in the creative process especially difficult as it involved condensing nuanced and complex insights into what often felt like overly crude and sweeping statements. I also had to hold structure very lightly during this exercise and not be limited to how the line-of-argument would appear in the academic publications, but instead prioritise what felt cohesive and logical for this format.

Learning 4: Consider how you want people to feel when engaging with creative outputs

Hive mind metaphor

Two of the most useful questions that Charlotte posed to me during our early discussions were (i) what is the tone you are aiming for with this resource, and (ii) how do you want people to feel when they see it? While I hadn't explicitly considered either of these points prior to making a start on the illustrations, I knew that I wanted the resource to resonate with people - for it to name and visualise in an impactful way some of their experiences and perhaps their own frustrations with how organisations tend to respond to inequalities. What I definitely did not want was for people to feel either the target of the critique that's presented in the booklet, or feel disempowered and disillusioned about the scope of possibility for change. So while the 'hive mind' style metaphor shown here may have worked in some capacity for illustrating ways of thinking that many of us are institutionalised into, we didn't take this image any further as it is neither a constructive nor empowering way of illustrating this point and ran counter to what we were ultimately trying to achieve.

Learning 5: Share early and often and accept that some things will have to wait

When you've been living and breathing a subject for so long, it can be easy to lose sight of just how much ground you've covered and how much content you are packing in to different research outputs. Sharing draft versions of the illustrations and narrative with my brilliant mentors, advisory groups, and colleagues, while daunting, was invaluable in getting to grips with what was working well, and which ideas simply were not translating on paper. Putting together a presentation for the UK Knowledge Mobilisation Forum Conference that set out a draft version of the booklet was also a character building exercise as I was physically getting out of breath trying to get through the slides! While it can be sad to lose content and ideas that you found compelling, I'm convinced of the value of prioritising the experience of the audience and ensuring that creative outputs are accessible (this will be addressed before fully finalised) and digestible for people when seeing them for the first time. I've also realised that the booklet doesn't have to be the sole output that does everything, and that ideas that didn't make the final cut could be accommodated in different complementary formats and resources. I'll continue to share these here in the future, along with the publications when they are ready.

Acknowledgements

I’m extremely grateful for the insightful contributions of the following people who have supported me in carrying out the research and in preparing this visual resource: Amy

Clair, Clara Martins de Barros, Dominique Nylander, Elena Semino, Geoffrey Gleadhill, Hannah Fairbrother, Hilary Garrett, Jayne Price, Jennie Popay, Joel Llewellyn, Katherine Smith, Lisa Whiting, Louise Marshall, Martina Kane, Peter Durrant, Rob MacDonald, Saima Gull, Sarah Markham, and Tim Wilson. I would also like to acknowledge the very helpful

conversations that I had with Julian Burton about creating visual metaphors, and my colleagues who have provided constructive feedback and critique on earlier versions of the booklet - you are too many to name but your time and help in finalising this resource is deeply appreciated. A very special thank you to Charlotte Caswell of Bearwell Creative Ltd for her patience, illustrative skills, and ingenuity in converting what was a work-in-progress idea into this finished creative output. We got there in the end!