How to make friends with your flatmates

Working in groups, we were given the title of 'making friends' and how to solve this problem having the courage to go up to people and make friends when starting university. We felt that this was quite a broad subject area to work with so we concentrated on 'making friends with your flatmates' and how to engage with each other. 

For this we brainstormed  methods, ideas and activities which we felt would help break the ice and help flatmates get to know each other and be friends with. Of all the ideas we brainstormed we picked three main ideas. 

FRESHERS PACK COUPONS

This idea was designed to be included in the freshers packs which are each students room when they move it to halls. The ideas was to have a piece of a poster in each of the rooms in one flat, so that when all the flat mates put the 5 or so pieces they had together, it would make a poster with symbols and slogans we had designed to evoke flatmates to make friends. This poster would be advertising a certain pub/bar around the city where upon arrival with all flatmates and all pieces to the poster they would receive a free drink. 

KICK-START STICKERS, FLYERS AND POSTERS

This ideas did not have as full on approach to making flatmates engage with each other, but instead we wanted them to be placed over the university and the students possessions as reminders throughout freshers week and for the rest of the year.  We had simple ideas for the symbols, they would be eye catching, bold and brightly coloured and handed out on flyers, stickers and posters to be placed around the university and given to students. It would provide simple guidelines of how to make friends; SMILE, INTERACT, DANCE. DRINK, SHOPPING, COOKING. In addition we would have slogans where symbols were not possible. 

We felt that this idea would remind students of these simple ways to keep yourself an inviting person to talk to if they just ensure they follow these simple ideas, to smile. 

MEET, GREET, AND EAT

This was the idea which we chose to solve our problem

We wanted to advertise the idea of a group cook throughout freshers week and even the continuing weeks. For many students, it is the first time being away from home meaning it is the first time they have to take care of themselves, shop, cook and feed themselves. This can prove to be more a problem than originally anticipated, especially if you have limited cooking skills and recipe knowledge. This activity engages the whole flat, it helps educate people on basic cooking skills which they can learn from other flatmates and it also ensures that the whole flat sits down to a meal together and engage with each other. We came up with the slogan 'meet, greet, and eat' which we would advertise on posters around the university, around the student accommodation and in freshers packs. 

In addition to this idea, to give the students inspiration of what to cook, we designed fridge magnets in the shapes of the food (peppers, pears, burger and chicken drumstick) with simple and healthy recipes. Again, these would be simple, bold and bright.