THE FOCUS IN WISH DESIGN IS ON THE “HOW” OF THE WISH

Wish design is all about creating and designing the wish anticipation and wish realization phases. This is where the real creativity and “magic” happens.

Designing a wish is a highly collaborative and creative process that involves our volunteers, staff, corporate partners, the community and most importantly, the wish child and their family and friends.

We must capture the imagination of the child and not be constrained by “grown-up limitations” – the wish should defy rules, limits and even logic.

We must give ourselves license to think BIG, think BOLD and believe “nothing is impossible.”

This creative spirit will be contagious and it will attract community support, partners, new volunteers, donors, referrals and more.

During this process, we highly recommended that you work with a group of people. Take the time to do the wish design and come up with a step-by-step plan. Besides involving staff and volunteers in wish design, also think of involving corporate partners.

Make sure you always keep the child in the middle because when doing design, it will be easy to go off track and lose the focus on what the wish is all about.

Make sure to also involve your Marketing department in the wish design of the wishes. To be able to engage in good storytelling, it is important for Marketing to be involved from the beginning. That way, they can come up with a plan throughout the wish design process on how to best tell the story (e.g. a wish story told in different phases; a wish story told from different perspectives – mom, child, sponsor or volunteer).

THIS MEANS THERE WILL BE SOME SHIFTS IN THE WAY WE WORK:

From:

Focus on categories and types

To:

Avoiding categories and placing more emphasis on the individual and distinct qualities of each wish; just as the children who have them - every wish should be unique

From:

Start with a template on “how to deliver”, for example, a princess wish

To:

Remove preconceived ideas on how a wish might look – start every design with a blank sheet of paper and the ideas of the child, not a script or template

From:

The wish granter/coordinator designs the wish

To:

An invitation to the child/family, your corporate partners, volunteers, staff and the community, to help contribute ideas

From:

Plan the “day” and the “reveal”

To:

Plan the whole Wish Journey – including anticipation and what happens after the wish takes place (wish effect)

Wish Design – Documents and Exercises