DesignKind 2022

A series of cross-cultural emerging designer collaborations curated by curated by British Council, Do The Green Thing and Pentagram exploring racial justice and climate justice.

By Do The Green Thing

Curated by British Council, Do the Green Thing and Pentagram

The 2022 DesignKind programme pairs 8 emerging designers and design collectives of colour from South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK who are working across a range of design disciplines (fashion, craft, materials, print, architecture, graphics and technology) into 4 cross-cultural collaborations over a 6 week period. Each pair has been invited to create a piece of interdisciplinary work that nurtures cross-cultural relationships, spans across countries and explores the intersection of racial justice and the climate crisis.

What the showcase represents

Through research, critical dialogue and the use of technology and collaboration tools, these pairs explore a variety of topics around the intersections of race and the climate crisis:


Topics:
– The stories of climate-refugee people
– Cross-comparative climate-experiences, both past and present
– Mapping racial and climate history
– And more


Disciplines:
– Creative coding
– Materials and textiles
– Language, and oral storytelling
– Machine learning

– And more

Showcase Outcomes:
– Nurturing cross-cultural relations
– Championing emerging talent
– Cross-disciplinary experiments
– Decolonising cultural-creativity

– And more

DesignKind 2022 - Launch video

Nature vs Future (2021) by Shyama GoldenDo The Green Thing

Background

DesignKind 2022 is a pilot programme that has been developed from the British Council’s ‘10x10’ emerging designer programme and Do The Green Thing’s ‘The Colour of the Climate Crisis’ with the support of Pentagram Design.

This programme and showcase was designed by British Council in partnership with Do the Green Thing and Pentagram. The partners designed and nominated a Selection Committee process who were experts in the area of design, climate, and creativity. These people were from the networks of British Council, Do the Green Thing and Pentagram to choose the final 8 designers. The committee was made up of 4 very inspiring and established creatives:




- Ailbhe Larkin
- Anupama Kundoo

- Sunny Dolat
- Parvinder Marwaha

Through a series of deliberation workshops and voting rounds, the Selection Committee narrowed down 8 successful participants from a long-list of 24 brilliant designers and design collectives. These 8 designers and design collectives include:

Arda Awais and Savena Surana (Identity 2.0) - London
Bisila Noha - London
Bubu Ogisi (IAMSIGO) - Kenya, Ghana
Lokesh Saini - London
Neba Sere, Sanaa Shaikh and Umi Lovecraft BP (decosm) - London
Nifemi Marcus-Bello (Nmbello Studio) - Nigeria
Shehzil Malik - Pakistan
Shubhi Sachan (Material Library of India) - India

The designers and design collectives met in an Inception Workshop, where they were briefed on the programme and paired with their collaborations.

Each collaboration was paired at random, and the only parameter being they were cross-disciplinary and were made up of one representative from South Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa and one representative from the United Kingdom.

The collective met on a weekly basis with the project team over a 6 week period to discuss the programme, review the work and collaborate on research and ideas.

The programme ended after the 6 week period with outstanding results of excellent international collaboration in action and worked closely with the project team to prepare their final outputs for the official showcase launched across Google Arts and Culture, The Colour of the Climate Crisis exhibition site, and pushed out through social media and press coverage.


Presentations of Work

Bisila Noha x Nifemi Marus-Bello

 Pre-recorded video presentation for the DesignKind 2022 Online Launch Moment (07/07/22). The presentation discusses the work Kindness, Optimism & Community produced for the DesignKind programme 2022 as well the collaborative, creative and research process behind this.

Bubu Ogisi x Neba Sere of decosm collective

Pre-recorded video presentation for the DesignKind 2022 Online Launch Moment (07/07/22). The presentation discusses the work Decolonising Materiality: From a Colonial Past to a Decolonial Future produced for the 
DesignKind programme 2022 as well the collaborative, creative and research process behind this.

Identity 2.0 x Shubhi Sachan

Pre-recorded video presentation for the DesignKind 2022 Online Launch Moment (07/07/22). The presentation discusses the work Landless produced for the DesignKind programme 2022 as well the collaborative, creative and research process behind this. 

Lokesh Saini x Shehzil Malik

Pre-recorded video presentation for the DesignKind 2022 Online Launch Moment (07/07/22). The presentation discusses the work (de)Generating the City produced for the DesignKind programme 2022 as well the collaborative, creative and research process behind this. 

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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