Narrateam: Open-Sourcing Intersectional Feminist Resources
First-year, Margarita Zulueta created Narrateam, a platform that offers a centralized database for intersectional feminists to provide their own narratives and learn from the narratives of others, in order to gain a better understanding of the movement. Narrateam members can use the platform to share resources, events, and news items that are relevant to the movement and connect with like-minded individuals and organizations. The Narrateam brand presents two core offerings: the digital platform and the physical space. The Narrateam website offers a centralized library of open-source resources that can be easily shared and accessed by all intersectional feminists. The Narrateam physical space is a gathering place for feminists to hold narrative discourses to connect and learn from each other, as well as having special events.
There are currently a plethora of accessible resources and organizations out in the world doing the work to promote feminist causes. However, much of the time those sources are spread all across the Internet and it takes quite a long time to get the information specifically relevant to the feminist movement. The Narrateam platform is for all intersectional feminists, but especially important for feminists who are new to the movement and looking to learn more. The Narrateam platform provides them with an easy way to gain knowledge about the latest news, resources, events, organizations, and swag to support feminist causes in one place so they do not need to feel out of the loop if they are not ‘following’ or connected to the right sources.
“The Narrateam platform’s key focus is on open-sourced collaboration and connection focused on narratives. Through our shared feminist narratives, others get a better understanding of why this work is important and how our individual stories fit into the collective feminist narrative.”
>>Click above to watch Narrateam website demo.
Process and Research
The development of the Narrateam platform was the result of a weeks long investigation of how to iterate from an item she threw out, which was a yogurt container. Key highlights in this journey were the development of the initial Sliding Stories brand from the shadow puppet theater. The Sliding Stories brand led to the continuous thread of collaborative storytelling and community focused narratives that are present in the initial Narrateam app and the current Narrateam platform. Without the Sliding Stories ideation, Margarita would have been unable to see how to apply a purpose to the work that she developed for Narrateam.
Next Steps
According to Margarita, the biggest success during this project was the development of a clear brand that focused on collaboration for good. When this brand and process were presented to peers and external designers, the logic behind each design decision was clearly understood and coherent. Her class readily understood the importance of the platform and responded positively to the branding. Further steps for Margarita will include branching our her brand campaign to include more live events, email blasts, and safe co-working spaces