Last week my classmates and I had the opportunity to go to a speaker event in Grand Rapids hosted by Design West Michigan and AIGA West Michigan. Many subjects were discussed, but of particular interest was the idea that design needs representation in government.
Designers of all fields need to band together with one voice and make a stand–to become an active force of change. Historically design in America has been broken into different fractions–different professional organizations–all trying to achieve their own goals and policies. But, recently this has seen a change not long ago a group of designers banded together and held a summit to try and create a unified proposal of where they want to see design go in the future. This became the U.S. National Deign Initiative.
The Short List of Proposals:
Proposal 01 Formalize an American Design Council to partner with the U.S. Government.
Proposal 02 Set guidelines for legibility, literacy, and accessibility for all government communications.
Proposal 03 Target 2030 for carbon neutral buildings.
Proposal 04 Create an Assistant Secretary for Design and Innovation position within the Department of Commerce to promote design.
Proposal 05 Expand national grants to support interdisciplinary community design assistance programs based on human-centered design principles.
Proposal 06 Commission a report to measure and document design’s contribution to the U.S. economy.
Proposal 07 Revive the Presidential Design Awards to be held every year and use triple bottom-line criteria (economic, social, and environmental benefit) for evaluation.
Proposal 08 Establish national grants for basic design research.
Proposal 09 Modify the patent process to reflect the types of intellectual property created by designers.
Proposal 10 Encourage direct government investment in design innovation.
Designers have the potential to change the world but until we gain presence in that potential may continue go unseen.
Unfortunately many of these proposals will go unseen, and will likely remain mere dreams well into the future but they demonstrate the want of change, and the willingness to get the ball rolling. All great plans begin with ideas.
Design can help save the world, but in order to do that, someone needs to speak up.
