28 Jul Social responsibility as a designer.
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Social responsibility as a designer
More designers are confronting our social, environmental, and political conditions. What is the responsibility we as designers have to the communities we are impacting?
How can we think differently about 'doing good' as a creative person?
Sometimes, in the process of engaging with people or information, we might find that what is needed isn’t in line with what we are offering. If and when this happens, we can always find other ways to contribute.
More designers are confronting our social, environmental, and political conditions. What is the responsibility we as designers have to the communities we are impacting?
One responsibility is to carefully consider the help we offer. Doing so will help us to avoid falling into the “savior” trap. It is easy to fall into a “savior” mode regardless of color, but especially easy for white folks. Omayeli Arenyeka explores why this is, what savior complex is, and how to critically consider our approaches to avoid creative savior complex in our design work.
Discussed in this guide:
- What is creative savior complex?
- How to recognize it in ourselves.
- Asking key questions.
- Common pitfalls of designing for diversity
A guide to avoiding “creative savior complex” when working on social impact projects, written by Omayeli Arenyeka.
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