You go designers
A good friend of Geez and principal at a local design firm (Circle Design), Rob Peters, had a cover article in the current issue of Applied Arts (see a PDF of it here on Rob’s site).
I know Rob as one who is very self-conscious about the impact that design has on the world.
He says, “we are drowning in data.” He says the developed world has moved from “smokestacks to information-based societies.” Now, in this “age of ideas,” he says, “the role of design has moved rapidly into the forefront of market economies.”
He asks,
Aware of the advancing threat of monoculture, can the world’s designers help conserve and revive those things that make human culture distinct and unique? Is there still time to avoid losing our sense of who we are, where we’ve come from, where we belong and why these distinctions are so important? Designers, more than most others, are in a position to actually celebrate societal differences, to embrace the vernacular and to help avoid the unhappy melding of unique cultures into a bland global stew.
He calls upon designers to be a positive influence:
We can choose to deploy our powerful talents and propaganda tools to further understanding and build empathy, to nurture tolerance, to resolve conflict, to build respect for diversity and “the other,” to expose injustice, defuse violence, promote peace, break down divisive barriers, counteract patriarchies, oppose hegemonic empires, alleviate despair, and repudiate fanaticism and fundamentalism of every kind. We have the power to expose the root causes of inequity, fear, despair and rage (the breeding grounds for terrorism).
- Aiden Enns, Editor, Geez magazine
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