DesignShifts is a project that explores a better future for and through design.  We explore intentional Shifts that can help us move design from a tool that contributes to division, destruction, and isolation, to a practice that unites, rebuilds, and reconnects us to our inner selves, each other, and nature.

The vision is to shift design from a tool that serves company growth to a practice that serves community and planetary flourishing.Item description

The project brings together people looking to Shift the way we design products, environments, governments, policies, messages, etc. We’re designers, researchers, teachers, scientists, citizens from around the world who are who are tired of business as usual and commitment to shifting our perspectives, the practices, and the purpose of design.

We’re committed to harm reduction within the current system while dreaming and designing beyond the borders of it. 

In Designs for the Pluriverse, Arturo Escobar writes:  

"Could it be that another design imagination, this time more radical and constructive, is emerging? Might a new breed of designers come to be thought of as transition activists? If this were to be the case, they would have to walk hand in hand with those who are protecting and redefining well-being, life projects, territories, local economies, and communities worldwide." 

I hope that these shifts will inspire a world where designers “walk hand in hand with those who are protecting and redefining well-being, life projects, territories, local economies, and communities worldwide”. (Design for the Pluriverse)

No! You don’t need a design title to participate. As a matter of fact, you don’t need a professional title at all. We recognize that real change happens when different kinds of people collaborate with each other and that expertise comes both from work and life experiences. 

Beyond the borders of the professional world we can see that “design” is something everyone does on a day-to-day basis and by many different kinds of people. I hope that this piece of work can inspire and activate people beyond design titles. I hope it can create new connections between people from different fields and walks-of-life. I hope that it can Shift WHO is doing the design and how the design is being done.

The vision is to shift design from a tool that serves company growth to a practice that serves community and planetary flourishing.

In the article: The Power of Lo-TEK: A Design Movement to Rebuild Understanding of Indigenous Philosophy and Vernacular Architecture the author writes: “With environmental and societal collapse imminent in the coming decades, design at the intersection of anthropology, ecology, and innovation is the most pressing discussion of our time.” Design, with its problem solving, imaginative and action oriented abilities can aid the transition towards something better. 

We believe that design plays a big role in shaping our physical and emotional environment. Design also has the ability to alter our physical environments permanently. From the products we make, the messages we put out there, and the spaces we craft, design has the power to affect change. Through design we can understand and access situations, create narratives for a better future, and create actionable steps to move forward. Design has the potential to be part of creating a better tomorrow.

The project was started by me, Ida Persson, in a moment of personal transition. I was looking to Shift my personal career away from serving corporate growth towards serving communities and planetary florushing. I wanted to create a space where designers could collaborate to develop mindsets and methods that could Shift the current state of design in order to aid the transition towards a better tomorrow. The project is in a constant state of evolution. I hope that the perspectives, processes, and purpose of design will be shaped together as a collective. Once the perspectives and processes have moved and become part of each and everyone’s of our practices, the project will dissolve. 

As we find ourselves in the interrelated crises of climate, food, energy, poverty, and meaning it is important to recognize how the systems, products, and environments that are causing harm today are not broken. They are working as they were designed.. If we want to aid the transition towards a better tomorrow, we must be willing to rethink and redesign our perspectives, processes, and purpose. The time is now because tomorrow it will be too late.