Deliberate Ink: Facilitating and Changing Perceptions of Women's Political Participation through Writing and Print Making

Deliberate Ink is a public engagement project which supports women in the North East of England to produce political led content as visual communication outputs: a series of typographic posters, using a nineteenth-century hand-operated letterpress. It is an ongoing collaboration between Teesside University academics specializing in English literature, creative writing, and graphic design; Preston Park Museum in Stockton-on-Tees; and two regional charities dedicated to supporting women who have experienced domestic abuse. It emerged out of a sense that research and creative practice within design thinking, typography, and nineteenth-century studies might productively be put to service in creating high-quality and confidence-building opportunities for local women to explore and communicate the (political) issues that affect them. This article provides an outline of the project's activities in its pilot phase and reflects on value on its methodologies.