Dig Deeper:
Thoughts on design
A personal manifesto
imagemaking & illusion
Design can balance an asymmetrical playing field.
Design can elevate the perceived status of a small organization. It can help gain trust. It can weaponize illusion, appearance, it can make a reality out of a vision born from will and creativity.
Design can hide uncomfortable truths.
Design can manipulate. It can lie and misrepresent and underplay that which is harmful. It can impactwash, greenwash, pinkwash and brain wash.
Symbols & poetry
Design can extract from reality the symbols necessary to grasp, make sense of and shape it.
It can create identity around a symbol. It can be poetic, and through poetry, it can nourish and align people´s will and action. Design can foster collaboration.
Design can shape worlds not worth living in.
It can destroy and appropriate the symbols of a culture. Through this, it can manipulate, cause harm and suffering.
restorative beauty & glamour
Design can create artifacts for our senses to recharge.
Compositions where the eye wanders as one would on a leisurely pace on a garden. Words that restore one’s sense of meaning in an otherwise chaotic environment. Design can create fascinating, titillating things.
Design can be a symbol of exclusivity and elitist status.
It can prove itself an object of pointless desire, it can create problems in order to sell a solution.
Insight & framing
Design can show undiscovered or ignored facets of reality.
It can dig deep into truth to reveal the key components. It can shift empathy, connect with a sense of wonder in the ordinary, bring the attention out of autopilot when engaging with a subject.
Design can force a perspective.
It can distort a narrative, and serve systems of opression. It can bury truth within itself. It can distract and divide and confuse.
The power of modeling & representation
Design can model behaviour and social interactions.
It can give us clues on how to behave harmonically. It can make things easier for people who see themselves represented. It can challenge stereotypes through representation and can foster inclusivity.
Design can model harmful behaviours.
It can elicit consumption and hatred. It can be performative and detrimental to social goals.