by flora.dokonal -

Design Activism (Part 5)

Welcome back to my blog, in my last post I focused on the importance to know that everything designed is in some way political and it is the job of the designer to think about this before publishing your own work. Besides, it is crucial to give people the opportunity to share their voices through your work. Do not speak for them, because you might not be able to express things in the same way as affected people.

Nick Adam, Associate Partner and Director of Span, shares:

Working across networks is powerful, and bringing people into the design process can help level the playing field. When done well, this work engages people who may not have had access to designers and are understandably unsure of what they need or how to participate. While this can extend a project’s timeline, a slower, more generous process often yields richer outcomes. A collaborative designer’s role must include guiding people to engage and participate meaningfully. (Meharry 2024, p. 21)

With this citation the persona of the collaborative designer is added to the mix. This shows that designers can use different methods to go about their work. They can either work on their own, just finishing projects for their customers, share their knowledge and skills through co-design or work collaboratively, which might add new dimensions to the design if done in a meaningful way.

This idea of collaborative design is a form of activism, as well. It gives a voice to people and involves them in the design process to which they usually do not have any access. Dave Pabellon, Associate Professor at the Columbia College in Chicage, argues that the word activism often has certain connotations and is viewed as something extreme, when sometimes it is just about connecting with affected communities. (cf. ibid. p. 22)

Language is important in every aspect of our lives, therefore, we have to think about how certain words make us feel, which connotations they might have. This can give us access to different groups of people. Similar to activism is “[…] the word activist, because in many ways, everyone is an activist – it just depends on what they’re activating and working toward.” (ibid. p. 22) He mentions that it does not make him more of an activist than another designer just because he is working with communities and they are working with big corporations, they just promote different things through their work. (cf. ibid. p. 22f)

It is interesting how easy it is to initiate a shift in mindset. Language is power, is a crucial statement to remember in communication design or all types of design really. And therefore, any designer should think about what kind of activist do they want to be? Do they want to influence a societal change or do they want to make the powerful people and corporations even more powerful?

To conclude, try to think about which kinds of products or services you want to advocate for. What kind of activist designer do you want to be and how will you be able to do that? Try to think about different ways of designing, do you want to work for certain companies, with certain people (co-design) or with communities (collaborative design)?

Source:

Meharry, Jessica (ed.): Design as Acitivsm. September 13-14, 2024. Symposium Proceedings. Institute of Design at Illinois Tech. California: ORO Editions 2024.

by flora.dokonal -

Design Activism (Part 4)

In my last post, I started talking about which questions you need to ask yourself as a designer in order to become a design activist and which questions you need to ask about your target group. This is a good starting point to make design that matters and promotes a greater cause.

Anne H. Berry states why it is important to be a design activist:

There are many ways in which design has been a contributor to racism and bigotry and negatively affected people’s lives. So part of our work is to recognize the ways in which these problematic histories and relationships exist, whether or not we’re choosing to identify or acknowledge them. You can stand at a distance, say that you aren’t political, and remain reticent about engaging with politics, but that’s just [not] how our society works. I don’t think it’s a reflection of reality.
Designers need to be ready to push back, stand our ground, and say, “No, we’re not going to do that.” We just can’t afford to be silent. There’s nothing neutral about design. Ever. (Meharry 2024, p. 12)

Even though, you might think your designs are not political and do not influence anyone in this direction, by not acknowledging problems you might just play right into the plans of some politicians or parties you might not want to help. And if you are doing this on purpose then be aware of the ideals you are conveying to others.

To be able to change society you have to be aware of where the power lies and what power is. Sara Cantor from the Greater Good Studio thinks power has “the ability to change someone else’s reality, or maybe even your own.” (ibid. p. 13) She talks about power being inherently neutral, only society interprets it as being either good or bad, but it is necessary if you want to bring about equitable social change. (cf. ibid. p. 13)

Furthermore, she talks about designers being involved in decision-making processes. This means, they are able to influence clients and stakeholders to a certain degree and, therefore, able to redistribute power. (cf. ibid. p. 14) For instance, powerful people usually want to stay powerful on their own, but if you tell them that their power will increase, if they share with others, because they have people behind them they can trust and work together with it could help shift their mindset slightly. (cf. ibid. p. 16)

Ahmad Jitan, Director of Organizing and Advocacy in the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, adds that it is important to remember: “[…] that I don’t need to be the voice for the voiceless. You just pass the mic. That’s where, at its base, it becomes a values conversation.” (ibid. p. 16) Do not try to speak for the people, but be their amplifier and give them the stage they need to be heard.

To conclude, be aware that each work you put out is somehow political and think about how you can strengthen the causes you want to support. Additionally, do not try to speak for others, give them the room they need and let their voices be heard.

Source:

Meharry, Jessica (ed.): Design as Acitivsm. September 13-14, 2024. Symposium Proceedings. Institute of Design at Illinois Tech. California: ORO Editions 2024.

by flora.dokonal -

Design Activism (Part 3)

Hello, and welcome back to my research. I will now focus on some of the sources I found in my last post, therefore the main part of the research is now on the field of design activism.

From the 13th to the 14th of September in 2024 there was a symposium called “Design as Activism” in Chicago. Because there are already numerous designers in the city that create design activist pieces, they invited people to start a discussion, inspire others to engage with design activism and share their thoughts and experiences. Jessica Meharry describes:

The word activism comes from the Latin word actus: “a doing, a driving force, or an impulse.” In many ways, this is perfectly suited for design. We understand design as activism: as taking action, putting theory into practice, and learning through doing and making. Yet design is also deeply entangled with capitalist systems, with many designers working in service of clients that prioritize profit, growth, and extraction. What space is there for activism, for social and political change within those contexts? (2024, p. 7)

To be able to create design activist projects that matter and go in the direction you want them to go it is important to ask yourself the right questions. “Design activists must consider how we do or don’t reinforce power differentials. This includes how we engage with conflict and dissensus versus consensus and collaboration.” (Meharry 2024, p. 8) These questions often require continuous reflection, as well as, awareness where you position yourself as a designer and as a human being. Anything about your identity can have an influence on this.

Moreover, activism is a driving force that connects people, also designers, as they tend to share a similar vision of a better world. It is essential that the communication on these topics does not stop and evolves instead through learning and having an open mind. (cf. ibid. p. 9)

Anne H. Berry, the director of the School of Design from the University of Illinois Chicago, mentions that even though we mostly do not think about things in this way our everyday lives are highly political. (cf. ibid. p. 10) The question she asks is: “If you think about the things or experiences in your life that have influenced you, that have changed you, how are those [sic!] are tied to politics or democracy?” (ibid. p. 10) This is indeed a question that makes you more aware of how politics often influence even small decisions in our daily lives.

We as designers have the power activate people to use their voting rights or advocate for other important changes in our communities, countries or in the world. It is our responsibility as citizens to not just turn a blind eye on politics and everything that is going on in the world, because it is also changing our own daily lives. The question is, how do we get to the people we want to mobilize? To be able to do this it is important to start asking the right questions and to discern what drives these people that we want to reach. (cf. ibid. p. 11) And who is our target group in this specific case.

To conclude, in order to be able to become a design activist it is crucial to ask the right questions about yourself as a designer, as a human being and your target group. To add to that, it is essential to know that even if you do not want to be everything you do will always be political to some degree, therefore, it is important to be aware of politics and how they influence our daily lives and the things we want to promote as designers.

Source:

Meharry, Jessica (ed.): Design as Acitivsm. September 13-14, 2024. Symposium Proceedings. Institute of Design at Illinois Tech. California: ORO Editions 2024.

by flora.dokonal -

Design Activism and Socially Responsible Design (Part 2)

One of the reasons, why I am only now writing my second blog entry is, because I did not have a lot of time lately and another one is the difficulty to find scientific and other usable sources for a master’s thesis from a design topic. Since the design world does not seem to focus as much on science as other fields it proves to be extremely difficult to do good research on specific design-based topics. Maybe this is just my own feeling, but has anyone else experienced this? Or am I just going about it in the wrong way? Anyways, here are some sources I have recently found and want to check out (if I am in any way able to get my hands on any of these):

Bieling, Tom (ed.): Design (&) Activism: Perspectives on design as activism and activism as design. Hythe: Mimesis International 2019.
Coker, Coleman and Gamble, Sarah: Environmental Activism by Design. California: ar+d publishing 2023.
Erlhoff, Michael and Rezai, Maziar (eds.): Design & Democracy: Activist Thoughts and Examples for Political Empowerment. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag GmbH 2021.
Fuad-Luke, Alistair: design activism: beautiful strangeness for a sustainable world. London: Earthscan 2009.
Meharry, Jessica (ed.): Design as Acitivsm. September 13-14, 2024. Symposium Proceedings. Institute of
Design at Illinois Tech. California: ORO Editions 2024.
Place, Alison: Feminist Designer: On the Personal and the Political in Design. Massachusetts: MIT Press 2023.
Shea, Andrew: Designing for social change: Strategies for community-based graphic design. New York City: Princeton Architectural Press 2012.

In my last post, I have compared design activism to socially responsible design and I have tried to find clear definitions for each of the topics, which proved to be extremely difficult. This is why I came to the conclusion that depending on the context both areas differ slightly. Where design activism focuses on longer lasting change, socially responsible design usually refers to more current topics and usually shows immediate change that does not last as long.

I have the feeling that there are either several more similar approaches going around or different names are used for socially responsible design, which makes it more difficult for me to really understand what is included in this field of design. To completely discern the differences between these two approaches I will try to find more resources on socially responsible design, if possible. I hope that I will be able to get more access on important resources on my topic and I’m looking forward to share more findings in my next blog posts with you.

by flora.dokonal -

Design Activism and Socially Responsible Design (Part 1)

I am interested in areas that advocate for social change through projects. Thus, it is clear that the fields of design activism and socially responsible design are thought-provoking fields of research for me. I have already collected some material on these, which I will share with you in my blog articles.
The two directions of design activism and socially responsible design share corresponding values, although the second approach appeared much later. (cf. Cetin, Aryana 2015, p. 1)

Even though, both of them have similar backgrounds they differ in the details:

[…] main drivers of DA can be listed as social, political and economic factors Activist design is an act of generating a broad range of proposals for society. It is relatively more concerned with policies, dynamics of economy and social climate such as consumerism, sustainability, economic contradictions etc. Yet, SRD is mainly driven by ethical, humanitarian issues and benefits of the less-favoured society. Social, environmental and economic issues can be obtained as the basis for both approaches. SRD responds to the defined needs of society such as social discrimination, poverty, insanitation, conservation of natural resources, inequality and less favoured groups of a society. SRD focuses on the needs of the smaller segments of society whereas DA compasses a wider scope which contains the smaller segments. Because DA addresses a wider scope of society, its impact period is longer than SRD activities, which have a narrower scope and direct implementations and outcomes. (ibid., p. 3)

Designers raise awareness for their values and beliefs through their work and try to promote social change with their projects, within these fields. Additionally, design activism can not only be implemented in the field of communication design, but also in other areas, e.g. architecture, product design, landscape design, etc. Of course, these aspects of shared values are also used by businesses to position themselves and get access into the world of their target consumers. Therefore, it can be seen from a more commercial perspective, where corporations show their values and expect their customers to share them. This makes their target groups view them in a more positive light and usually people that do not align with these principles will then change their shopping habits, if it goes against their personal beliefs.

The Sociology dictionary defines social responsibility as “[…] the ethical obligation of individuals, groups, or organizations to act for the benefit of society as a whole. It involves making decisions and taking actions that positively contribute to the welfare of the community, environment, and broader social systems.” (The Sociology Dictionary 2025)

Cambridge dictionary has a more corporate approach on this subject and mentions it being “the practice of producing goods and services in a way that is not harmful to society or the environment” (Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.). While this is true as well, it focuses only on the economic side, disregarding the aspects of social responsibility that also include individuals. To add to that, this is a very broad definition, since products usually harm the environment in some ways, even though they are maybe not intended to.

Activism on the other hand is defined as “the use of direct and noticeable action to achieve a result, usually a political or social one” (Cambridge dictionary n.d.). This seems to be much more straightforward, even though in activism it often takes a while to achieve the wanted change.

The other dictionary only has a contribution to environmental activism, which states that it

refers to organized efforts by individuals, groups, or movements to protect and preserve the environment by addressing ecological issues such as climate change, pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. This activism encompasses a range of actions, including protests, policy advocacy, community organizing, and educational campaigns, aimed at promoting sustainable practices and environmental justice. In sociology, environmental activism is analyzed as a social movement that challenges existing power structures, corporate practices, and government policies that contribute to environmental degradation. It is often intertwined with broader issues like social inequality, as marginalized communities disproportionately face the consequences of environmental harm. Sociologists examine environmental activism to understand its role in shaping public awareness, driving policy change, and fostering collective responsibility toward sustainable development. (The Sociology Dictionary 2025)

To conclude, there are various definitions for activism and social responsibility and depending on the context these differ slightly. Clearly, both areas touch upon topics differently and while design activism shows longer lasting change, socially responsible design focuses on more specific topics, showing immediate change that usually does not last as long.

Sources:

Activism. In: Cambridge Dictionary n.d. URL: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/activism/.
Cetin, Özgür Deniz and Aryana, Bijan: An Analysis of the Influence of Design Activism and Socially Responsible Design Approaches on Design Education. Paris: Paris Descartes University 2015.
Environmental Activism. In: The Sociology Dictionary 2025. URL: https://thesociologydictionary.com/sociology-dictionary/e/environmental-activism/.
Social Responsibility. In: The Sociology Dictionary 2025. URL: https://thesociologydictionary.com/sociology-dictionary/s/social-responsibility/.
Social Responsibility. In: Cambridge Dictionary n.d. URL: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/social-responsibility/.