This past school year, 66 eleventh-grade students at Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School learned that design can be an act of service. Through a partnership between Grad @ Grad, DesignPhiladelphia, and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, students stepped outside their own perspectives to create something for someone else. Working in small teams, they learned about the Face to Face community's interests, favorite colors, and the phrases that bring them comfort. From there, they translated empathy into craft, building stencils and mastering screen printing techniques from FWM staff. The result is original tote bag designs, each one printed by hand and intended for someone the students will likely never meet.

For Katie Parry, FWM's Education Manager, this shift in perspective is the heart of the project. In past years, students designed and printed for themselves. This time, as Parry explains, "it is a very different challenge to design something with another person's interests and needs in mind." Students thought carefully about colors and motifs that could spark joy for someone else and they seemed to take pride in being an artist that could offer something with a practical and emotional purpose. When Cristo Rey fills those bags with donated toiletries and home goods for Face to Face, the project comes full circle: design and generosity working together to make something useful and something felt.