Design is a story of intention and hope. By engaging in the design process – observing, analysing, identifying opportunities, and setting out to solve a problem or issue – we are engaging in an act of optimism and the very belief that we can improve things for everyone. It is design’s intention and its inherent optimism that makes it such a powerful force for social change.
Design has always been about change, often radical, sometimes reactionary – just think about the Bauhaus or the Italian Futurists – so, in many ways, the practice of so-called ‘social design’ is a return to its roots, but it still represents a paradigm shift. Saying that design is a cornerstone of the fight for positive social change may sound like a very worthy, ambitious, and probably even unattainable goal, but this encompasses large and small interventions and it is more about moving in the same direction than anything else. Every designer can contribute toward this positive change if they want to. It is the intention that matters.
The Open Design Forum in Hong Kong was an exploration of this intention, the powerful potential of design and the opportunities to open up dialogues around not only design, but also an open society. Through making, experiencing, and talking about design and what it can be, as well as what we do when we design, the forum was an invitation to citizens and social design pioneers to converse, comprehend, collaborate.
Ultimately, the Open Design Forum was about changing mindsets – both those of citizens who may not have engaged with design before, as well as those of designers who might not see themselves as actors and agitators. The forum focused on taking people out of their comfort zone and challenging them to think about the future we want to live in, and how we are going to get there. We heard about and debated student projects on death, ageing, and homelessness and what it means to engage in social design.
On the second day of the forum, I moderated a discussion together with Vincent Wong, a political commentator based in Hong Kong, following presentations by Professor Lorraine Gamman and Professor Pelle Ehn on how we can use design to address taboo subjects. Professor Gamman spoke about how design interventions have tackled taboo subjects such as rape and assisted suicide, but she questioned whether or not we want to live in a world where design’s only role is to provoke debate and if we perhaps should seek more active and dynamic design thinking that drives debate and real social change. Professor Ehn spoke about how we might ‘slow down’ social innovation and acknowledge smaller, more low-key and human-centred acts as the real path to positive social change.
The conversation sparked a heated debate about taboo subjects, with participants citing a number of taboos in today’s society – from being boring or mundane to criticising the government – but we quickly focussed on cultural and even regional taboos, including the protests in Hong Kong. We spoke about how admitting defeat and failure has become so taboo in our society today, but we were reinvigorated by the notion that an individual act of ‘failure’ can instead be seen as a
necessary part of a longer journey or a larger narrative to success – in essence, a prototype.
It is this ‘prototyping’ and the changing of mindsets in particular where I think real change is possible. In the UK, I run the RSA Student Design Awards programme, a global curriculum and competition that challenges emerging designers to use their skills to address a range of social issues, such as those very ones we were discussing at the Open Design Forum. The real success of the RSA Student Design Awards programme is not, in fact, the range of ideas and solutions that participants come up with, for how they could improve society, but rather the shift in the way that these emerging designers view the role of design in society and their role as designers. Addressing and engaging in the big social, environmental, and economic issues facing society today is a big task and may seem impossible at times, but the intention to use design and design thinking in this way represents a real shift. Essentially, it is not about the project, but about the people and the portfolio.
Upon returning from the Open Design Forum in Hong Kong, I was at an event hosted by the UK-based innovation charity NESTA. As I continued to reflect on the open and frank discussions we active citizens and social design pioneers had in Hong Kong, it was at this event that my thoughts coalesced. Speaking on the topic of open innovation at this NESTA event, the musician, producer, and tech entrepreneur will.i.am said, ‘the unfamiliar is not the same as the improbable,’ and I think it is this more than anything else that describes the impetus behind the Open Design Forum.
I look forward to continuing the discussion at the Open Design Forum 2015.
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