Pride + Perseverance
A Manifesto for the Future of Design
The future of design is reliant upon how we design our future. The future is the shape of what we make of today’s world, and for a future we should all desire, we need to change the way we think today. To avoid an inevitable dystopia, we need love. We need light. We need hope. Life isn’t always perfect, but it’s important to approach how we deal with those faults to form the yang to life’s yin. We have such a need in today’s society to eradicate negativity, yet this idea is virtually inconceivable, and only wastes our communal energy. For our positives to exist, I feel we must experience some kind of negative to let us appreciate them. There’s no use trying to avoid it; the negative will approach us, regardless. As designers, we need to be unapologetic, fearless of the negative. For the existence of an ideal future, we should collectively reapproach design, refocusing our energy into positivity, optimism and forward-thinking solutions. Regardless of the negativity. Regardless of the pessimism. Regardless of the gossip.
While the interconnectedness of the current world has been great for our shared mental health when we are forced by nature to stay inside, there is a divide that this has created. When we fail to realise that we aren’t talking to a screen and that there’s a human at the other end, we say things would never say to someone’s face. We enter the vicious negative cycle. We lose connection. We lose empathy. We lose hope. When we detach from these values, we reflect this in selfish design. Design that excludes. Design that favours the privileged. Design that marginalises real, living and breathing people. In this disconnection from reality, we fail to fix the problems within society before it’s too late. In ignoring these issues, we further fuel them. Racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, capitalisation on mass scales, environmental destruction, deforestation and other forms in which we drain the planet of non-renewable resources. We allow and normalise the mistreatment of the information we trust corporations to keep confidential and protected.
Leading us to the inevitable dystopia. It’s unsustainable.
However, technology, when perceived as a negative, is a negative that, as aforementioned, we simply cannot avoid. Maybe how we’re using it is the real problem in today’s world. Personally, I believe that design should inspire change, be inclusive, be progressive and provocative. We should promote design that brings people together, designs that have the power to evolve society, no matter how ‘grass-roots’ level this evolution may be. Designs that don’t run from the potential perils of technology; and instead acknowledge them, face them, in turn allowing us to educate ourselves on how to utilise it for the greater good. These shifts in our ways of thinking and acting will reflect in our design, while our design continues to elevate this shift in being, as if life and design entwine themselves in a loop of positive reinforcement. The values of pride and perseverance are a big part of who I am and therefore the decisions I make. What I wear. What I choose to do and choose not to do. Following these values, I’ve reached the point in my life where I have little shame in being myself to people who I would have previously put my guard up around. I’ve unlearned the need to be liked by everyone, and yet I continue to feel fulfilled. Life is too short to be a façade. Life is too short not to be provocative. Life is too short not to be proud. The same fearlessness and shamelessness should be applied when designing - if it worked for me, it can work for anyone, or any design.
When we take life’s negatives at face value and let them allow us to shine a light on the positives, we can unlock a future where we are unapologetic, allowing us to involve empathy and care for the planet in everything we do, especially our design. A future where this cycle of positivity liberates us from corruption and deceitfulness in governments and authoritative bodies. A future without stigma and fear, and instead understanding, diversity, freedom and sensitivity. What stops us from reaching this is the continual marginalisation and unfair treatment of minorities, lack of understanding for mental health issues and little care for the planet we inhabit. The fuel to the fire of negativity. Instead, we should focus on designing solutions that will keep sustaining this planet but also solutions that teach others about equality, respect and diversity. Fuelling the fire of positivity. Maybe it’s provocative to fight fire with fire, but it’s desperately needed. For the pride of our kind. For the perseverance of our kind.
The future relies on our provocation.
The future relies on us.
Videos sourced from Pexels. Music sourced from Pixabay. All rights reserved.
