SIG synergies

if you’re not in existential crisis as a designer in 2022, maybe you’re not doing it right!

The Little Book of Designer's Existential Crises began as a conversation between four Special Interest Groups (SIG) of the Design Research Society: the Pluriversal Design SIG, Global Health SIG, Sustainability SIG, SIGWELL and Education.

We wanted to know what were the existential crises of designers today? Was it the shift away from objects and artifacts? Was it the changing evaluation standards for design researchers and academics? Was it the complex social problems that designers were being asked to play a role in addressing? Was it the growing awareness of a misalignment between the theoretical grounding of design and one’s personal philosophies? How are designers working through their crises? In this Little Book, we share five reflections that responded to our prompt.

This Little Book outlines the existential crises of designers today in social design, education design, sustainability design wellbeing design and health design research. It provides reflections and raises questions that each design researcher and practitioner should begin to ask.

We envisage that the Little Book will inspire you to reflect on the existential crises that you recognize as a designer and provide a starting point for reframing your practice.

Click here to download the Little Book of Designer's Existential Crises.