When I attended the Emergence 2007 international design conference at Carnegie Mellon University, I was made aware that designers the world over were conscious of their responsibility to become part of the solution to the disastrous problems in our global and national communities. Design in its advertising and marketing forms has often been criticised for encouraging overconsuming, and at times design has unscrupulously been co-opted to propogate disinformation in politics through such abhorent events as the Willie Horton and Swiftboat ads. But the designers at this conference were not only condemning bad practices, but imploring design to do proactive positive good without being asked. The imperative was that we can't wait for politics or clients to catch up and ask. Time is too precious, and we must help before it's too late. Economies are failing, the sustainable environment is disappearing, energy resources are at limits, displaced and starving people are suffering and a multitude of other emergencies beckon. It's as though no responsible adult is at the helm. Being is the US under the current administration has been like living in the novel Lord of the Flies, where pre-teen boys are running the show based on testosterone posturing and impulse. Conversely, the design process, when used correctly, examines problems holistically so that innovation gets the right solution to the needed population with no harm done to any environment or at any cost to other people. It is the golden rule put to good use.
Another important message which came from this conference and designspeak in articles and blogs this year is the idea that designers are now designing for larger social structures and being used in fields which have previously thought to have no need of design. Design is a process that can enhance how anything is organized, thought through comprehensively and implemented effectively. It is not just visual organization any more. It is not only creative, but uses creativity in many expressions. In this way, design can be a means of imparting change that Obama seeks on our behalf.
I find that he opens my creative pores to design readiness. I want to do something positive. First I want to design messages which will help people understand confusing soundbites from the media that I feel distract from the issues. I want to create some simple ways to elicit trust from those who fear Obama because of race or religion-based negative propoganda. I really feel that those who aren't supporting him in the working class right now are the same ones who would most benefit by his policies and ideas. Design can help.
I am asking likeminded designers to put some effort into this task. Help design the truth. When we elect Obama there is much more work for designers in terms of the issues on the table. Design has a big role there. If he is the listening candidate I believe he is, there will be a call for us as volunteers, just as there was a call for mobilization of the Peace Corps to work for the good of all under Kennedy.
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