Designer as Feminist: A vague idea.
As a designer for the past five years of my life I confess that my approach towards design has been contradictory with my own values and ethics. Women in Jordan have been involved in design in a variety of ways, as practitioners, illustrators, graphic designers and researchers. On a personal level, I am a graphic designer and illustrator. And I confess I produced design works that “reproduced existing social norms” and perpetuated symbolic violence in my work while embedding sexist, classist and at times even racist.
And I am ashamed of myself.
Last year I have taken part in a workshop in Helsinki: Designer as Feminist. I have realized(and that was so depressing to me) that a lot of my work as a graphic designer has been of no value or contribution to my society what so ever. I was producing products of no value or clear thought. Brands, illustrations and even posters that didn’t even tackle one of the value I disagreed upon: the patriarchal society I lived in.
Throughout my career in advertising, I enforced the meaning of women as mothers, cooks, and even pushed the acceptable norm of what is ‘feminine’. My personal values were never reflected in my work. Not now nor back then!
I have made presumptions, generalized, and even agreed to embody women in the consumer role of housewife (i.e vacuum cleaning and washing machine ads). What is shocking, in my personal life I was always a firm fighter against that thought, why did I agree to do it? Why doesn’t my work reflect my values?
It is tricky in multifaceted communities like Amman to say that my view as a Feminist should be reflected on everyone else. I don’t expect every person out there to agree with me because I only represent myself as a: privileged middle class Ammani woman. However, I am responsible for my own actions, and the choices I make are my own. Although I consider myself a firm believer of fairness and equality, I contradicted myself with reflecting emotional carelessness brought about by passiveness and denial.
The workshop have made us examine our work and review our own values and ethics as a designer. I will no longer agree to push these stereotypes and I will no longer be part of my own double standards. The workshop ended with the facilitators asking us to write our own set of values.
Values that we can abide and work with, and those are mine (hope I can stick with them):
- Challenge stakeholders for what I believe in and negotiate.
- Turn down projects that don’t align with my own values.
- Spread awarness about social issues by doing projects that are meanigful and impactful. Belive in making projects that can add value and contribution to myself and the people around me.
- Take a step down from my privelaged middle class pedestal and talk to all people in a voice that is uncondenscending and on the same level.
- Challenge social norms in personal projects and encourage to break norms in clients projects.
- Assumption is ignorance. What I feel or believe doesn't represent or apply to everyone else.
- Rather than including people in my projects, expand my projects to include people.
Though many will disagree, and might find my values problematic, I believe that the success of projects are a result of the the centrality of the designer. Designers role should shift as they are the ones that can add meaning or value to their own work, and I will be part of the change hope you are too!
