this article appeared online at Adbusters.org. it was written because i admire community organizers more than designers. because the work of actually doing the dirty work to make things better is done by people who are not seen, rarely thanked, and i have thoroughly enjoyed working with on countless numbers of occasions. and because, it is necessary, that we, the people who love to make shit, think like designers and be seen in our media landscape, decide just which side we’re on.

Design motives in a trendy marketplace.

I’m not a community organizer. I’m not a scientist. I’m not a journalist or someone who rallies a crowd with a powerfully moving speech. I’m not an electrician, a businessman, a mechanic or a waiter. I happen to be a designer.

I like using visual communication to convey information or to inspire people to action. I like working with different types of people from different backgrounds who have different needs and goals in our visual, media-driven culture. And I take the need for us all to be citizens in this increasingly complicated world seriously. That’s why I find it refreshing to see the good design movement really begin to take hold. (more…)