Brief: How to...

Our brief was based around solving a problem encountered when living away from home for the first time. The given problem for our group was:

How to... Live with people you don't like.

We set about our task by initially researching into student experiences of previous flat mates in order to gain an insight into what issues have caused tensions to arise. Though doing this we quickly discovered that when it comes to actually living with people you don’t like on a day-to-day basis, it is extremely difficult to fully resolve the situation. This led us to believe that sometimes it is more about making the best of your circumstances and so we set about an idea that could just make somebody’s life a little more bearable- even when living with the flatmates from hell.

Our idea was essentially based around a simple slogan:

MAKE TEA NOT WAR!

…and it comes in the form of a simple tea making kit consisting of two mugs and two tea bags inside a carry case.

We thought that the idea of having a cup of tea and a chat is such an instantly recognisable method of either getting to know someone for the first time, or on the other hand it can be a type of social tool that can be used to help resolve differences once they have arisen.

Going back to our initial thoughts and ideas many people said, however stereotypical, one of the first things they did after moving in was to have a cup of tea! The light hearted approach would ideally help people warm to each other and ultimately have fun and enjoy themselves which is what living with new people and starting university is all about.