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In 2023, Blue Cabin began working with tialt to develop new ways of capturing the impact of our work. Together, we developed a new impact framework and changed the way we present our work in our annual impact report.
Now, three of Blue Cabin’s associate artists are developing playful, trauma informed, creative evaluation tools which participants can use at the end of projects.
Graphic artist, Nic Golightly, gives a behind-the-scenes look at her creative process, showing how she developed a quadrant tool which captures feedback from participants about Blue Cabin’s projects.
These were my visual notes for the creation of the new Blue Cabin impact tools.
This is the process undertaken to create an impact tool. The initial Impact Day, where we discussed what we wanted to measure and why, was on 24 June 2024 and we showcased our tools on 25 July 2025. As a person who likes to complete work quickly and tick things off the to do list, this was quite the challenge for me!
Developing the impact tools began with lots of ideas on a sheet of paper.
I like to begin with drawing things out, whatever the creative task. I had certain questions about the process and how to do it ‘right’. The list of ideas were discussed with the team and whittled down. These became three ideas which were then trialled with members of the Blue Cabin team (who have a whole host of skills sets and experiences of working with young people, finance and project management). Their insights helped me discuss possibilities, problems and solutions.
Initial versions of this were tested with young people who were currently engaging with Blue Cabin. Feedback was very useful at this stage. Project Manager Lucy Ridley and I had a great conversation about the simplicity and ease of use being essential for the sessions she plans.
Self reflection is essential to our work at Blue Cabin, but sometimes it’s easier said than done! I have felt like I have needed to steady myself on this design challenge and let the work develop at its own pace, whilst also acknowledging that we don’t always need to reinvent the wheel.
Thank you Nic for sharing your creative process! Nic’s completed impact tool, The Quadrant Tool, will be used to capture impact across a whole range of Blue Cabin’s projects.
In 2023, Blue Cabin started working in collaboration with tialt, which is a social enterprise which designs creative research tools for positive social impact. We wanted to develop new ways of capturing the impact of our work, across all our programmes. Together, we’ve created an Impact Framework which Blue Cabin is now piloting. Its development was supported by Funding Plus, from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
See Blue Cabin’s impact framework, which was developed with tialt>>
