WHEN WE DESIGN OUR FUTURE, WHO HAS THE POWER TO DECIDE?

A collection of individuals and organizations exploring and practicing Equity Design

The Equity Design Collaborative was formed in 2017 by organizations and individuals from across the U.S. practicing what we would later call Equity Design. This community emerged out of a collective urgency to leverage design to subvert exploitative power dynamics. We recognize that we are not the only group practicing equity design. The Equity Design Collaborative invites and holds space for collaboration amongst equity designers.

OPPRESSIVE SYSTEMS IN THIS NATION WERE DESIGNED, AND THUS CAN BE REDESIGNED. WE ARE BRINGING FORWARD A RADICALLY NEW TYPE OF DESIGN TO CREATE THAT CHANGE.

VISION STATEMENT

The vision of the Equity Design Collaborative is to grow the field and the movement of Equity Design in order to disrupt white dominant cultural ways of working, redesign systems of oppression, and design for liberation.

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Equity Design Collaborative is to cultivate a community of practicing and aspiring equity designers with the courage and conviction to reclaim the practice of design. To do so:

  • We interrogate the existing field of design, including traditional design, human centered design, community centered design, and beyond, knowing we are intimately bound up in designed oppression.   
  • We support each other in critical reflection and accountability for our intentional and unintentional impact, and help each other avoid perpetuating injustice while we each build our equity design practices.
  • We build a foundation of relational trust, share tools, skills, and mindsets with each other, and learn from adjacent activist efforts.

PHOTO CREDITS ON THIS PAGE: ADRIAN OCTAVIUS WALKER