A grassroots design workshop for activists is launching this summer

If you feel the industry standards of your profession aren’t geared toward perpetuating social or environmental change, get up and do something about it.

That’s the sentiment that drove a local group of graphic designers to band together and build the Design Activist Institute, a three-month studio workshop for designers passionate about working for social and environmental justice. The institute, based out of the University of the Arts and fiscally sponsored by CultureWorks‘ Culture Trust program, is set to launch this week.

“This is a grassroots group that will be kind of bringing more of an activist sensibility to the profession of design,” said cofounder Alex Zahradnik, who likened the group to a mission-aligned art collective. “A lot of graphic designers are inward facing, and a lot of social and environmental justice done through graphic design tends to be self-referential.”

The institute wants to produce work that has a real, tangible physical affect like designing composting systems or food waste reduction structures.

Design workshops are often intended to serve as a space to practice. Zahradnik said the institute wants to produce work that has a “real, tangible physical affect” like designing composting systems or food waste reduction structures.

Those outcomes will be carried on the back of a community organizing mentality. Zahradnik, along with co-director Lauren Smedley and designers Gil Gonzalez and Linzi Eggers, have designed the workshop model to be inclusive and democratic. Every decision is made by group consensus and with input from the communities the designers will be working in. 

“We don’t want this to be some kind of colonialist project. We want this to be as embedded and ingrained in the community as possible,” he said. “Spreading visual communication and the democratization of information as far and wide as possible in the clearest and most concise manner possible is very important to us.” 

The work done by the Institute’s members this summer will be informed by Chester-based environmental activists Kaya Banton, Carole Burnett and Frances Whittington. While this summer’s focus will be on the local root causes of climate change and the public health issues facing the area, the institute’s theme will change from year to year.

Next year, Zahradnik said, could be public education or income equality.

But for now, the Institute is building a base of up to 30 members for the summer, and Zahradnik said the group is looking for individuals who are able to commit through the summer. The fee to participate is $25 — all of which will go toward production costs.