The Black Lives Matter movement has caused a rightful reckoning in nearly every industry in 2020, and design is no exception. For the better part of a century, the conventional definition of “good design” has been largely Eurocentric, and companies have been staffed accordingly: 73% of designers are white, just 3% are Black.
It should go without saying that this needs to change. But how, exactly? And to what end? If you are a business, design studio, or a designer today, what should you be doing to embrace BIPOC designers as a baseline rather than an exception—and in the face of hundreds of years of systemic oppression?
We talked to a dozen brilliant designers to build new rules for design. Think of it as a new manifesto for the design world, and a critical response to the oft-cited 10 Principles of Good Design by Dieter Rams. Rams, who led design at the consumer products company Braun for more than 30 years, can trace philosophical roots to the fabled Bauhaus School in Germany, which ushered in the modern era of graphic and product design with a sensibility that Apple still champions today. Many powerful companies, not just Apple, consider these rules to be holy writ. They think of simplicity and restraint as prerequisites of good design, when the approach excludes other points of view. Not only is it a construct of the European gaze; it serves as a veneer atop a deeper injustice, as companies exploit labor and resources across the non-white world for Western consumers.
2021 will be a year of rebuilding from one of the most horrific times in modern history, and that task falls, in part, to designers, who must rethink everything from education to healthcare. It’s the perfect opportunity to overhaul the framework the industry is using to create a more equitable future for everyone.
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