If you’ve read anything on this blog, you know we’re not fans of virtue signaling and herd thinking. We don’t like empty promises, press releases or shaming. We don’t aim to capitalize on a conversation that isn’t meant to serve us.
Which is why we’ve been thinking hard about how to use our voice and this platform right now, following the brutal murder of George Floyd and compounding injustice long before it. What seems like the correct response one day, or one hour, isn’t the next. But as many have said already, the only thing we can do wrong is doing nothing at all.
And there’s a lot we can do.
Our goal with DESK has always been to amplify voices in the creative community that aren’t normally heard, and to make design more accessible to those who typically get shut out.
It’s why we started our Design Around the World series, after seeing the spotlight continually overlook designers outside San Francisco and New York. It’s why we interview people from underappreciated creative fields, to hear their perspective and see how life looks for those outside our small circle. It’s why we share advice and encouragement for young designers, after seeing how intimidating it is to enter this gated community. It’s why we aim to make it easier for designers to present themselves online and get a job.
Inclusivity has always been a priority on DESK. But the word “include” can still be passive. In our community, it usually translates to how we design our app interfaces or hire for our teams, along with the occasional Twitter spat. It doesn’t necessarily translate to an active stance against racism.
If there’s anything we’ve learned from these past few weeks, it’s that consistent effort is necessary for change. Action is not only showing up in a pivotal time, but continuing to show up. So instead of waxing poetic about our feelings, we’re going to skip ahead to the action.
We will continue to share DESK as a platform for others, to help diversify the creative community and support designers in doing their best work. This community is where we feel we can most directly and meaningfully incite change. And we’ll do more:
– We will make an effort to not only include minority voices on this blog, but more purposefully seek them out. Specifically, we will share our platform with and more regularly feature Black creatives and makers we admire.
– We will make it a priority to educate ourselves about racism and inequality, expanding what we read and who we follow, to inform more useful articles and conversations with our audience.
– We will double down on series like Design Around the World and How to Get a Job at X, making a concentrated effort to elevate and enable creatives in the minority. We are currently exploring ideas for new series or interviews to take this to the next level.
– We will listen. We remain open to the very likely possibility we are wrong, and aim to challenge the passivity and ignorance we can so comfortably fall into.
Most importantly, we will follow through on these promises. Because talking about action doesn’t mean much unless we take it.
