Hasta La Ideas

The finished farmer’s market at dusk

As every designer and design educator knows, the hands-on experience of bringing an idea from paper to product goes far beyond a letter grade. Yet primary and secondary school curriculums rarely inspire the depth of dedication required to these kinds of potentially transformative workshops. Designer/activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller are among the exceptions: following their “design revolution roadshow,” they’ve since brought design thinking to underprivileged areas like Bertie County, North Carolina—the poorest in the state—through Studio H, the education arm of their larger Project H initiative. Even more, they did it with a mid-project salary cut, forcing them to depend on grant money and credit.

Studio H students Kerron Hayes (left) and Cameron Perry (right)

Directed by Patrick Creadon (the man behind Wordplay, a documentary about New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz), If You Build It is a documentary about their experience teaching ten students the power of design and what a community-focused effort can do to the moral of the area. Over the course of the year-long curriculum, Pilloton, Miller and a few volunteers worked with the students created a farmer’s market pavilion from the ground up. The class turned out to be much more than a mere —check out the trailer:

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