Fall 2017
“To stay ahead he’s going to have to blow some really big bubbles! Look at those splashes! He reaches the finish line and the crowd goes WILD!”
# What is SWAM Canada?
SWAM (Swimming With A Mission) is a volunteer based organization that provides one-on-one swim instruction to childrem with special needs
# The Story
Here you’ll find another one of those stories where the design comes as a byproduct of meaningful human relationships. So the story goes: because I was a swimmer for seven years, because my teammate and I both went to McGill, because she was director of SWAM Montreal, because I was open for design commissions, because she also encouraged me to enroll as an instructor…
When we first met, my swimmer had to rely entirely on pool noodles to stay afloat, and going to the deep end wasn’t even part of the discussion. Today, I use my ~sports broadcaster voice~ to narrate our races across the pool. Every Sunday the pool becomes our imaginative landscape for exploration, as we transform into dragons, swamp beasts, and once, a carriage with twelve flying horses.
# So What?
I share this related-but-perhaps-not-entirely-relevant-to-design story because other people are what make design matter. By accepting a fairly mundane design commission, I also took the opportunity to reconcile my love of swimming and foster a relationship with a family I now cherish deeply.