Two summers ago, we had the opportunity to display STORYTIME at the Seattle Design Festival in South Lake Union. Built out of a friend’s garage, our 8×8′ intersecting bookshelf installation at SDF 2024 was meant to illustrate the community aspect of storytelling that we grew up surrounded by. We set out to answer the 2024 theme “What If?” by depicting a world where reading was accessible and participatory like it used to seem when we were kids. Sitting nooks, pillows, and tabletops made the piece a place to settle in, while a free library of 500+ books gave Festival-goers something to take home with them.

As a duo with little, or frankly, no building experience, taking this project on was a challenge. It took countless trips to our local Home Depot, YouTube tutorials, and long calls with our brother – who is a civil engineer. Thankfully, our community stepped in; we had many helping hands throughout the process – helping saw, sand, and drill wooden slabs alongside the team. We were even able to receive funding from SDF to make our vision come true.

Getting to see Festivalgoers interact with the piece that August made it all worth it. Little kids sat happily on the benches we’d sanded for hours, flipping through copies of our childhood favorites. Watching visitors light up as they chose which books they’d take home filled us with an irreplaceable sense of fulfillment. We’ll never forget having an attendee come up to us, free books in hand, saying: “what you’re doing is so important to so many people.” There is truly no better way to validate the impact you have on your community than hearing it directly from those you set out to impact.

Becoming Partners with the Seattle Design Festival taught us something we didn’t expect: you don’t need credentials to make something meaningful. Your community will step in to help you, and SDF is here to help you turn your vision into reality. We intended for STORYTIME to build community in unlikely places, and instead found that same community to be present along every step of the way.

If you’ve been thinking about proposing a design this summer, do it. You never know what kind of impact you can make on your community, and the Seattle Design Festival is the perfect place to begin making it.

— Clara & Josefina Ruival

There’s still time to submit your SDF 2026: IN[FLUX] Proposal! Review the Call and submit by Wednesday, May 27 at 5pm PT.

SDF 2026 Call for Proposals

Submit your Proposal