How can your design sector put the planet at the heart of its work?
We asked our new network of Design Council Experts this one question.
Phoebe English — Fashion
The Phoebe English Studio was founded in 2011 and uses a circular design approach to create high quality, sustainable clothing with the planet’s finite resources in mind.
Thinking carefully about the wider context of our work and sector is key to rethinking how and most importantly why we are working in the way we do. Many of the frameworks that the fashion industry consists of are inherited systems and inherited values.
The times we now live within are so vastly different from the context of when these came about. It is now time to think very carefully about what systems we choose to replicate and which ones we choose to disinherit. The ability of designers stretches beyond designing product itself and can and needs to go beyond this alone to include the infrastructure and frameworks to inform better choices and design practice.
Indy Johar — Architect
An architect by training, Indy founded Dark Matter Labs in 2017 out of his architecture firm Architecture 00. They have incubated numerous innovative start-ups including the open-source construction system WikiHouse.
Design plays a critical role in creating the systemic provocations of a new world, encompassing a new material economy, an intangible economy, and a new way of living within systems and relating to the planet. Making this future world tangible and pulling it back into the present is one of the key responsibilities of designers, who must also break psychological, systemic, and financial lock-ins. This disjunction of the present with the future is a pivotal task for designers.
Karishma Kusurkar — Strategic Design
Since 2014 Karishma has worked with clients, facilitating teaching at all levels and producing products and services along side this. She also co-founded several ventures including Belfast Design Week.
As designers, we are inherently problem solvers, but designing “for the planet” can seem a daunting prospect — where do we even begin?
When collaborating on projects, common challenges that come up include: the affordability of being more “planet-friendly”, the lack of knowledge on how to take action and the anxiety related to information overload, leading to analysis paralysis. Despite these problems, I believe that as designers, we can use our skills to help people feel more empowered and to kickstart real change.
In 2023, I co-developed the “Grow Your Own Way” project to make food growing accessible to those with limited resources and space in a local Belfast neighbourhood. Bringing together experts in growing, biodiversity, upcycling and garden design, we created hands-on workshops where participants designed, built, and grew mini gardens which they could take home with them.
Through initiatives like this, we can harness the power of design and break down seemingly overwhelming challenges into manageable steps and enable real change — one person and one neighbourhood at a time. Accessible “hands-on” projects, such as empowering individuals to grow their own food, can lead to a broader cultural shift towards designing for the planet and re-examining what is possible.
Joe Macleod — Design Innovation
Established in 2018, AndEnd offers assistance in four key areas: establishing a shared team vocabulary for the end phase, crafting complete narratives aligned with the brand, defining the characteristics of product decline, and fostering meaning and relief for consumers navigating bad endings.
Design has played an enormous role in industrialisation, inspiring people to buy products, commit to services, or embrace digital offerings by infusing them with meaning beyond mere function.
Yet, times have changed. We must now channel these design skills toward a better future, undoing the products that pollute, clearing digital assets that compromise privacy, and rebuilding trust in services with fleeting promises.
The approach at AndEng encourages businesses to recognise the significance of designing seamless consumer off-boarding experiences. It helps to maximise circularity, lengthening consumer engagement, protecting brand equity, and delivering environmental social governance targets.
Design possesses the transformative power to replace the shame and guilt often associated with environmental concerns with meaningful action. It can instill purpose and functionality, alleviating feelings of inertia and anxiety. Design embodies the spirit of humanity, and it’s time to direct this spirit towards the end of the product lifecycle. We must design ends.