PONT Masterclass: Starting with a design-based approach in a public context

PONT recently published the essay Starting, which presents a clear conceptual framework to help shape that beginning. Using six key dimensions, it illustrates how to align ambitions, process design, and room for experimentation.

This PONT masterclass builds on the essay and translates its insights into your daily practice. After all, collaboration between designers and public professionals can begin in many different ways.

For example:

• An independent designer sells a concept to an implementing organisation
• A design studio wins a tender issued by a ministry
• An in-house design team at a municipality receives an internal assignment
• A government agency and a design bureau co-develop a programme with other stakeholders

Whatever form the collaboration takes, this masterclass helps you start with clarity and purpose — whether you are a designer or a public professional.

Speakers and facilitators: 

Bas Raijmakers (Impact Lead at PONT en Co-founder design agency STBY)
Sander van Welsem (Advisor for Knowledge and Innovation at Werk aan Uitvoering)
Susan de Vries (researcher at The Revolution)
Femke Coops (Lead of Research PONT)
Lotte Vergouwen (Lead of Education and Reflection at PONT)

Why join this masterclass?

This masterclass will help you:

• Formulate and assess tenders and briefs more effectively and clearly
• Identify what good starting conditions for impactful collaboration look like
• Use the six dimensions from the essay as a framework for writing proposals, reflection, and dialogue
• Achieve better alignment between ambition, process design, and room for experimentation

What to expect?

• Applying the essay to your own professional context
• Exchange and reflection with other public professionals and designers
• Practical examples of how to use the essay in real-world situations

You will go home with practical tools to make the collaboration between designers and civil servants meaningful and full of potential — right from the start.

Who is this masterclass for?

• Policymakers, programme managers, and other public professionals who want to collaborate with designers
• Designers who want to work with (or within) government organisations on societal issues

Bring a real-life example with you

PONT invites you to bring an example from your own professional context.
This could be a (past or upcoming) assignment brief, tender, request for proposals, or a proposal submitted to a client or partner.

Note: All examples are welcome — we are keen to learn not only from what went well, but also from what did not go as planned.

Practical information:

Date: 23 September
Time: 14:00 – 17:00, with closing drinks afterwards
Location: Vogelfrei Utrecht

Are you excited about this PONT masterclass? Click here to register!