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DesEYEning our new logo – update on the 4th eyeYPAG meeting by Niamh and Orla

By Vijay Tailor-Hamblin,

The 4th eyeYPAG meeting took place at the end of November at the hospital. It was filled with information, art, fun and food. As a warm up activity, we made screen prints of cells and they looked great. We then all sat in a circle and had to tell everyone two facts about ourselves where one was true and one was false. The others had to guess which was which and it was quite hard at times!  

We met two researchers who had come to tell us about their research with the British Childhood Visual Impairment Studies (BCVIS). We helped them to think about the best ways to let children and young people know about the study. The researchers said:
“the findings from this research will benefit wider society as well children and young people with visual impairment and blindness. We were impressed by your insightful tips on ways to communicate with young people and look forward to incorporating them into our study!”

Sofie, the artist we had met at the very first Eye YPAG, was back to work with us, this time exploring identity – our own and that of the group. We had to close our eyes and make something out of clay to represent ourselves. It got a little messy (!), but some of the sculptures were really awesome.

We then had to write answers to questions like If you were a building, what would you be? Or If you were an animal, what would you be? We said a bungalow as it’s nice and cozy and a polar bear as they don’t have predators. We all shared our answers and it helped us to think about what unites us as a group. This led us into starting to think about what we want our logo for the Eye YPAG to look like. We all had to design and draw what we thought would represent our Eye YPAG in a good way. We started off with little sketches, then moved onto larger images, before sharing and comparing the finished designs. We loved how everyone had used their imaginations, and, of course, there was an eye in every design. Sofie is going to pull our ideas together and see what she comes up with for the next meeting.

 

As a final treat, and because it was nearly Christmas, we went out for burgers to round off the day. The food was really yummy and the meal was a great opportunity to get to know everyone a bit more.