As designers, we constantly talk about values. But how much do we really live these values? To what extent do they become the guiding principle of our design actions? In the foundation of design, we see a strong imbalance between what design claims to be and the values actually lived. For example, design wants to convince us of being particularly sustainable or democratic. However, we as designers counteract this by our actions, giving the impression that we are solely enthusiastic about Silicon Valley corporations and six-figure salaries. It’s this discrepancy that we find unacceptable! This double standard disgusts us!
Therefore, our vision is to close the gap between what design is and what it aspires to be. For this purpose, we have defined the following mission and artifacts as outcomes: First, we will raise awareness of the grievances, take a closer look, and criticize through a modular series of posters. In the second step, we aim to sharpen and develop the awareness of all creatives through a manifesto. Finally, we clearly see the “call-to-action” as the last component. Through our digital platform including a slot machine, we want to inspire and create new design challenges with other designers. This will encourage them to question the status quo and act differently.
The development of our concept is based on a design process in which thoughts have been continuously observed, reflected upon, and discarded, starting anew in a repeating cycle. It is important to emphasize that with our concept, we do not provide final answers to the question “What is good?” because we do not want to elevate ourselves above you or tell you where to go. It is important for us to close the values gap of design together with you and realize our vision.
A project in collaboration with Theresa Täuber and Felix Herrmann for the DDC competition 2023.