On February 7th, in honor of Black History Month, AIGA/NY held its inaugural Diversity in Design: cALL for Ideas Town Hall, a program of our newly formed Diversity & Inclusion Initiative. This event was the first in a series — open to the entire NYC design community — that aims to support expression, discussion, and ideation on issues of exclusion, bias, privilege, and inequity in our own profession.
Moderator, Melanie Eversley, Reporter, USA Today led panelists, Antionette Carroll, CEO, Creative Reaction Lab; Eddie Opara, Partner, Pentagram; Tim Allen, Partner, Microsoft; and Ronda Thompson, Creative Director, Essence Magazine in a personal conversation on their experiences as designers of color. There were moments of self reflection, acknowledgement, triumph, regret, advice, and even laughter.
“[There is a] lack of celebration in PoC design community. Lack of connection between what’s created and the people who created it.” — Tim Allen
“Being in the largest design company in the world and having no other African American to see, talk with … is kind of sad.” — Eddie Opara
Their insights, as well as the responses it sparked from Town Hall participants, have helped us better understand the needs of and barriers that exist within our design community.
As promised, we’re reporting back on what we’ve heard that evening. These findings have helped to frame our next event: Diversity in Design: cALL for Ideas Roundtable #1, on Friday, April 14th.
We captured a broad range of topics, issues, and concerns shared by both panelists and town hall participants alike through pre-and-post-surveys, panel discussion, audience questions and comments. What follows is a top-level summary that we hope inspires more personal, small group conversations at Roundtable #1.
The main topics that emerged are:
- Lack of Conversation Regarding Diversity and Inclusion
- Recognition of Underrepresented Work
- Lack of Diversity in the Workplace
- Lack of Diversity in Design Education
- Designers of Color Finding (Sense of) Community
- Social Justice Advocacy through Design
“Are these conversations happening in the communities of power and contributing to the larger divide? … We need to take this conversation and put it into action.”
— Antionette Carroll
Our take-away:
While these topics are representative of the conversations of our first town hall, we recognize that we have only scratched the surface of this complex issue. Sharing personal anecdotes, and general observations are important and necessary to cultivate a safe space for people to be honest and open about their experiences. But, it is only the first step in a larger conversation we intend to have.
“You have to believe in yourself … You have to really hustle.” — Ronda Thompson
A key insight:
Through these exchanges, it became clear that this initiative cannot just be people of color, women, or the LGBTQ community who are charged with navigating these non-diverse and non-inclusive spaces. It is our responsibility, as an entire community — especially those of privilege — to share the burden and be accountable for making the discipline and profession more diverse and inclusive.
Our surveys indicate that:
43% of participants attended the Town Hall with the intention of listening and learning about diversity and how to champion for it.
Nearly half of participants noted that the visible lack of diversity in design was the main reason this initiative had value to them.
“The majority of my career I have been the only black person in the room.” — Tim Allen
Overwhelming, participants felt the main vision for our design community was one that is welcoming and transparent, where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, and where difference is comfortable, encouraged, and conversations are rich with a broad range of perspectives.
We couldn’t agree more.
As we move forward into Roundtables #1 and #2, we intend to open the conversation up to a wider array of perspectives and levels of experience to create a more representative conversation with our NYC design community.
For Roundtable #1, we wanted to create a group that was as diverse as possible, including recent graduates and seasoned professionals; women and men; straight and LGBTQ identified; and a variety of races. Our panel for this event includes: Gail Anderson, Designer, Writer, and Educator; Senongo Akpem, Digital Designer and Illustrator; Riley Hooker, Graphic Designer and editor of Façadomy; Jesse Conner, User Experience Designer.
Where do we go from here?
The discussions generated at the Roundtable events will help us further refine the issues and topics that matter most to our community, moving us towards clear, actionable items that aim to make diversity a reality, as opposed to a topic of discussion.
How do we go from ideas to action?
Focused goals emerging out of the Roundtables will serve as proposal themes for our cALL for Ideas RFP, where members of the design community will be invited to ideate and propose actionable ways to combat the issues of bias, discrimination, and inequity through tangible means.
How will AIGA NY facilitate this?
Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of jurors from across the profession. Top jury selections will be awarded funding and support from AIGA NY to assist in the implementation of project proposals.
“Everything in our world has been designed. Historically, things were intentionally designed to exclude…. Why can’t we use design to dismantle it?” — Antionette Carroll
What’s your role in all of this?
Members of the design community will have an opportunity to be directly involved in all aspects of this initiative, including the discovery of D&I opportunities, refinement of RFP and development of actionable projects. These projects will serve to shift the mindset and actions of our chapter and wider NY design community towards a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable future.
Let’s do this #AIGAtogether!
AIGA NY Diversity & Inclusion
The New York City design community is an exceptional collection of talent, but falls short in reflecting the diversity of our vibrant city. Too many face explicit or implicit barriers to advancement. AIGA NY believes that diversity is essential to excellence, achievement, and creative innovation. Through our programming and initiatives we aim to foster the culture of inclusion in which all individuals feel respected and are treated fairly, and different viewpoints, opinions, thoughts, and ideas are encouraged and embraced.
We consider diversity comprehensively, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability and disability, age, and other factors that shape creative perspective and professional experience.
