The evolution of my social design craft
15 years ago, I graduated with a BA in Graphic Design, armed with a newly learnt craft, a talent for thinking visually, an ambition to work for a top advertising agency, and a dream to collect a flashy award. Today, I am one of the directors and board members at Uscreates; one of the first social design agencies to set up in London 13 years ago. My job is to design a better future society. My other job as an associate lecturer is to teach others to do just that.
My plans didn’t go quite as I had imagined when I left that graduation ceremony in 2003. But some of the skills I learned back then — as well as skills I picked up along the way — have shaped the craft I need to do the job I do today well. I continue to use some of these skills every day (as I stumble across new ones) to help people make sense of our complex world, understand different perspectives, get on board, and get imaginative.
In this chronicle, and through 16 vivid stories, I reflect on skills — old and emergent — that shape my current social design craft, and that I strive to equip my design students with. Every Sunday, starting the 30th of September, I will publish one personal short story that brings to life a skill from my career timeline below:
I hope that this candid narrative proves helpful to anyone out there passionate about developing or progressing their social design craft. Selfishly, I am also keen to hear from social designers about skills that I have missed mentioning or that I have yet to dip my toes in. Enjoy the read.
Read story #1— Year 2000: deconstructing and reconstructing
Read story #2 — Year 2003: risk and persistence after failure
Read story #3 — Year 2007: curiosity and questioning
Read story #4 — Year 2009: reframing and solving problems
Read story #5 — Year 2010: making and iterating
Read story #6 — Year 2010: empathy and storytelling
Note: I first shared this chronicle through a keynote I gave on the 7th of September at W**CHCRAFT for the Graphic Design Educator’s Network.
