How the Design Community is uniting and showing support for fellow designers and the people of Ukraine 🇺🇦
We’re incredibly proud to see how the world is uniting to support the people of Ukraine in their fight against the unjust raging war. As creatives of all types, we have the power to use our talents to speak on behalf of all those who are fighting and suffering every day. We feel it’s our duty to use our different creative ways to uplift the spirit of our fellow humans in these absolutely gutting times.
The creative industry is no exception. Just as graphic artists created posters during the Second World War, Ukrainian designers and creatives are fighting Russian misinformation and conveying our messages to the West. Many of us are doing this while sitting in shelters and basements. Including me. — Kyiv-based designer Katerina Korolevtseva
This quote is from a very powerful piece from Kyiv-based designer Katerina Korolevtseva titled — You can’t be silent”: how designers are rallying in Ukraine. It’s a must read!
Designers United for Ukraine
Designers United for Ukraine is a platform created by award-winning experience design leader, Guido Baratta, to enable the global design community to help Ukrainian refugee designers to find new work opportunities.
This unjust war is just beginning, and while we need to focus on the immediate needs of people being sucked into this unthinkable humanitarian tragedy, we also need to think about how we can help them reach safe spaces to cope and rebuild. Designers are often called upon to build the future — we are literally obsessed with it — so it makes sense that we should help the Ukrainian design community find sure footing and continue making excellent contributions to our shared future as designers.
— Guido Baratta for UX Magazine
A top priority of the initiative is to help connect displaced designers with new job opportunities. Visit Designers United for Ukraine to find out how you can help. There is also a Discord channel where a community is forming around this initiative to help with all kinds of ideas and tasks.
Designs by the Sketch community đź’™ đź’›
Sketch App Sources is really happy to see the Sketch design community use their talents to create #StandWithUkraine designs available as free downloads to be used to raise awareness and lift the spirits of the people of Ukraine and all those that support them.
These files are created in our favorite design tool — Sketch, yet it’s important to note they can be also opened in most design tools.
New designs submitted by the community are added often and can be found on www.sketchappsources.com.
Creatives for Ukraine
Creatives For Ukraine: A free platform invites the creative community to use art and design to fight for good.
“So many things are being said, but we feel it’s so important to act with whatever power, tools, or influences we have,” explains Justina Muralytė-Kozlovė from design agency Folk, one of three Lithuanian firms behind the platform. “We can contribute in a meaningful way to help fight fake news and give Westerners something visual to make them comprehend the gravity of the situation. We also invite everyone who is looking to help fight the information war in a practical way — it’s their chance to share illustrations or art depicting the war in Ukraine.” — Katy Cowan for Creative Boom
Creators giving back
Smashing Magazine has written a strong piece with many ideas and calls to action called We All Are Ukraine. They’ve already raised over $4,000 through their product sales.
Free access to design conferences for people from Ukraine
Silvia is an educator and design expert, especially when it comes to Design Systems. She is raising funds through her ticket sales of her upcoming Design Systems Conference and is also providing free tickets to Ukranian nationals interested to join.
Sketch — our favorite design tool speaks up, donates, and supports team members
We could not be more proud to see Sketch leading in raising support for Ukraine among the design tool community.
Creative ideas for creative folks
More inspiring visual works by artists and other reads. We’re speechless!
- Artists Are Expressing Their Support for Ukraine in Emotional Illustrations
- Beautiful Art That Supports Ukraine — Ten Unique Examples
- In Ukraine, Online Gig Workers Keep Coding Through the War
- How a Canadian artist is using the Saint Javelin meme to raise money for Ukraine
Together as a community we can make a big difference. The people of Ukraine and our fellow creatives and tech folks deserve it. They are fighting for their freedom, and each one of us can take a small part to help augment their fight. There is power in the uniting together.
Other impactful ways to support Ukranian people. You can find a comprehensive list on this page with verified links and information per country.
- Donate
- Join a peaceful protest in your city
- Host Ukranian refugees
- Sign petitions
- Spread awareness and correct information about what is happening
We want to keep this blog post as a live piece that we can update. If there are other resources worht nothing on this list, please reach out to us. Share with your communities to bring awareness and to provide other creatives with the resources of how to join and use their talent for a greater good, for freedom and democracy in the world, and all of Ukraine. #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
