I wanted to look more at the history of typography at CSM, to link with the legacy of the school and contextualise teaching of typography today. So I revisited Edward Johnston (who taught calligraphy at the Central School in the early 20th century). Some guiding quotes from Writing & Illuminating, and Lettering (1906).

“one must begin at the beginning, and that, in an honest attempt to achieve a simple end, one may
lawfully follow a method 1 without imitating a style.”
(Johnston, 1906:xx)

“Developing, or rather redeveloping, an art involves the tracing in one’s own experience of a process resembling its past development. And it is by such a course that we, who wish to revive Writing & Illuminating, may renew them, evolving new methods and traditions for ourselves, till at length we attain a modern and beautiful technique.”
(Johnston, 1906:xvi)

“We have almost as much or as little to be afraid of in Originality as in imitation, and our best attitude towards this problem is that of the Irishman with a difficulty “to look it boldly in the face and pass on” – making an honest attempt to achieve a simple end. Perhaps we trouble too much about what we “ought to do” & “do”: it is of greater moment to know what we are doing & trying to do.”

“In so far as tradition fails to bound or guide us we must think for ourselves and in practice make methods and rules for ourselves: endeavouring that our work should be effective rather than have “a fine effect” or he, rather than appear, good and following our craft rather than making it follow us. For all things materials, tools, methods are waiting to serve us and we have only to find the “spell” that will set the whole universe a-making for us.”

References

Johnston, E. (1906) Writing & Illuminating, and Lettering. London: John Hogg

Where feminism, design and politics meet

“Futuress is a hybrid between a learning community and a publishing platform. Our mission is to radically democratize design education and amplify marginalized voices. Through various free public programs, we problematize the role of design and foster critical thinking. Our work is literally for the future: we bring people together and support our community to craft their own narratives. One story inspires; many stories can ignite a movement!”

‘A Resource Hub for Decolonizing Typography’

Futuress has posted ‘A Resource Hub for Decolonizing Typography’ with links to articles specifically about decolonising typography. – more to check out.

References

Futuress. (2022) ‘A Resource Hub for Decolonizing Typography’, Futuress, 15 September. Available at: https://futuress.org/stories/decolonizing-typography-resources/ (Accessed 7 December 2024).

GCD colleague Anoushka Khandwala organised a roundtable discussion with several practitioners around the subject of decolonising design, these were:

Graphic designer Neebinnaukzhik Southall in Sante Fe, New Mexico

Designer and educator Ramon Tejada in Providence, Rhode Island

Designer and educator Miguel Navarro Sanint in Bogota, Colombia

Designer and educator Amy Suo Wu in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Some notes and quotes

“dismantling the Eurocentric historical design canon”

“Therefore, one way to think about “decolonizing design” is as the process of eliminating false distinctions between craft and design, in order to recognize all culturally important forms of making.”

Khandwala talks about decolonisation potentially meaning different things:

“The difficulty with a concept like decolonization, though, is that it means different things to different people in different places.”

• “de-centering the perspectives of settlers to emphasize those of the indigenous”
• “others focus on decolonization as a process of recovery and the restoration of identity”
• “still others use the term to critique Eurocentrism and modernism.”

“recognizing diversity of thought”

Southall
“as an indigenous person, it’s about centering Native voices”

Tejada
“It’s been an education thinking about decolonization in this layered, complicated context.”

Tejada
“Sometimes, decolonizing is about making space. Sometimes it’s about taking space.”

Tejada
“Decolonizing is about unearthing, shifting the glance, de-centering, giving agency, being vulnerable, making mistakes, ideation, thinking about our communities, and not so much design.”

Wu:
“As a teacher trying to disrupt this, I’m literally trying to mend the ruptures between binaries. I’m also interested in the word “mend” and reclaiming that word, which has been traditionally deemed inferior. It belongs to the realm of craft, and is associated with female labor. I use the word “mend” to describe literally and figuratively how to move forward with divides.”

Tejada
“If we say “design,” I tend to think of Design with a capital “D” as being a European thing. I heard somebody say once that you can’t teach any other Design history because Europeans created, or “discovered,” design. It’s like okay—just like you discovered America? Great… What a lot of us are interested in doing is thinking about lowercase design. “

Southall
“How many graphic design dissertations are looking at the iconography of a tribe and how it’s shaping the designers that are here? “

Wu:
“I’ve learned to look at design through her [mother] perspective—her non-elitist, local, diaspora aesthetic—and it’s been an un-learning process for me.”

On ego and collaboration

Sanint:
“When I was a student, I was taught to create something that was “mine.” Now, I can’t remember the last time I created something as only mine. I was part of something, I feel proud of it, but I feel it collectively—as in, we did this.”

https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/decolonizing-means-many-things-to-many-people-four-practitioners-discuss-decolonizing-design/

Khandwala, A. (2020) “Decolonizing Means Many Things to Many People”—Four Practitioners Discuss Decolonizing Design. AIGA Eye on Design, 20 February. Available at: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/decolonizing-means-many-things-to-many-people-four-practitioners-discuss-decolonizing-design/ (Accessed 7 December 2024)

While not directly attributed to teaching typography on Graphic Communication Design. The UAL attainment stats from 2023/24 tell us:

Home students (1st/2.1) 90%
International 82%

Home white 98%
Home BAME 76%
Home Asian 71%

University of the Arts London. (2025) ‘Attainment Rates’, Active Dashboards. Available at https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=cdf319c3-c4df-49aa-abcd-00cbdb5186e2&dashcontextid=638684775887265547
(Accessed 17 November 2024).

The AIGA’s report of 2021 provides figures on diversity in the design industry (see image below).

The report’s section titled ‘Creative Communities Advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ states that although “If broadly defined, the Design community is, in many ways, very diverse” (AIGA, 2021 : 65) and the “LGBTQIA+ community is more represented in the profession as compared to the overall population”, however “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) continue to present dilemmas and need to be more clearly defined and broadly discussed to give voice to all communities.” (AIGA, 2021 : 65). That “Asian Americans in the U.S. (not Design specific either) have been increasingly victims of racism and discrimination since the beginning of the pandemic.” (AIGA, 2021 : 65) and “For Black designers […] primary challenges were: lack of role models; lack of mentors; no awareness; and no career support.”

References

AIGA. (2021) Design POV: An In-Depth Look at the Design Industry Now. New York: American Institute of Graphic Arts. Available at: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.aiga.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/2021_DesignPOV_FinalReport_01302023.pdf (Accessed 22 January 2024).

Catherine Dixon, ‘Admit constraints: then having admitted, fill with discovery’, conference talk at Typography Theory Practice, Saturday 19 October 2024, Leeds Beckett University

Catherine Dixon, a colleague who has taught typography for many years at CSM, previously alongside designer and typographer Phil Baines, presented a paper at a conference dedicated to Typography in relation to theory and practice.

Dixon discusses how she feels the terms used to classify typography and related disciplines (lettering, calligraphy, etc) can act as a form of controlling what becomes canon or not. Dixon talks about how, particularly in Northern Europe, there is a preference to distinguish between practices, eg ‘typography’ and ‘lettering’, whereas this is not true everywhere, for example in Brazil where Dixon has experience of teaching.

Specifically, Dixon talks about “reframing lettering” in order to acknowledge other sources of knowledge on an equal level of hierarchy, in order to counter the idea of what has been previously deemed as ‘professional’ or ‘unprofessional’.

“The typographic is ONE way of communicating with letterforms and words, not THE way” (Dixon, 2024).

This relates to my research in terms of ideas of inclusivity, and decolonisation and the design canon. Part of this is thinking about what and how we present to students as typography, what do we mean by ‘professional’ typography, and how this might exclude certain work, particularly work by marginalised practitioners.

My initial reactions to this were that, in my opinion, it’s the distinct classifications that create the issue, so why not just call everything ‘typography’?

Dixon argues against just calling everything typography as this fails to acknowledge how classification has previously excluded certain work and certain designers.

Dixon suggests that the disciplinary blurring is a contemporary default and “not a blurring I find useful” (Dixon, 2025). “we could be here all day… year, talking through the many overlaps” […] “These definitions are helpful, because they start to hint at distinct skillsets” (Dixon, 2025).

Dixon prefers to “admit narrowness and identify constraints” (Dixon, 2024) and finding ways to “Expand awareness of the possibilities within visual/graphic communication practice” (Dixon, 2024).

Dixon went on to talk about the systems that are at play. That professional expensive equipment such as printing presses, typesetting technology, even more recent Adobe subscriptions, typeface licences, etc “Remain systemic obstacles to be negotiated” (Dixon, 2025). As with many professions, certain communities are excluded because of access to tools and finances. There is also inequality in different parts of the world:

“Global technologies are biased towards the Latin script […] at the expense of the quality of typesetting possible in other scripts”. “Access to systems of type is far from equal, and has been far from universal” (Dixon, 2024).

Dalton Maag, professional typeface design studio who I invited in to co-teach my intervention, also talked about this inequality. That there are many varieties of typefaces for the Latin script and far fewer in other scripts, which limits expression and limits how sophisticated communications can be in non-latin scripts.

Dixon talked about the professionalisation of graphic design, that leads to favouring work by professional class, middle class, white males. There has been a huge amount of control on the canon of typography through the professional class, usually white, middle-class males, who historically were working as professional designers, typesetters, printers. “Printing being heavily unionised and pretty much a closed shop” (Dixon, 2024).

Something that had a huge impact was the development of Letraset, a method of rub-down type, which “literally put typography in the hands of the people”. This enabled a certain degree of democratisation of the production technology of typography, as something that previously required professional typesetting services could be done by an untrained individual. “It became possible for groups, outside mainstream media, to publish zines and find a voice in print”
(Dixon, 2024). “Though such printed materials were still seen as far from professional examples of graphic design” and were often used in DIY publishing, punk fliers, etc.

In education this professionalisation was also reflected in the changing of course names and activities, moving away from making practices to reflect new technological practices.

Nicolete Grey, who taught at the Central School and established the Central Lettering Record, used a photographic collection of lettering to demonstrate the possibilities.

“A key tool in helping Grey to reinvigorate understanding of the possibilities of lettering was a photographic teaching collection first established at the Central School in 1963” (Dixon, 2024).

“The Central Lettering Record (CLR) had originally helped promote awareness to students of letterforms beyond the Trajan letter, which was the kind of established civic go-to letter for much of the 20th century” (Dixon, 2024).

“Under her remit, Grey expanded the vision for the CLR to celebrate lettering diversity of all kinds and as her teaching context at the Central shifted in 1966, to one of graphic design, the aim was to counterpoint the new emphasis on the typographic in teaching” (Dixon, 2024).

Dixon refers to Gray’s reframing of lettering as key to her argument:

“Lettering is the broad space, within which it is possible to situate more focussed letterform related practices” (Dixon, 2024)

“It’s a reframing that I find hugely helpful because it counters the dualistic thinking that prioritises the rational premise of design over other forms of lettering knowledge, generally demoted as craft. It affords space for recognising practices beyond the modular and the systematic and the contribution that these make to visual communication, outside of professional graphic design and it affirms that these spaces outside of professional graphic design have value. Typography is ONE way of communicating with letterforms and words and not THE way.” (Dixon, 2024)

So Dixon is talking about how this reframing of practices can allow for what otherwise might be dismissed as non-professional to be given the same hierarchy as so-called professional graphic design. Leading to acknowledging a broader range of knowledge sources. This allows us to look at sources of knowledge before the professionalisation of graphic design and bridge gaps between knowledge silos.

Dixon goes on to talk about the work of Colette Gaiter, specifically a talk for BIPOC Design History, which Dixon refers to as a “Canon shattering presentation” (Dixon, 2024).

Dixon talks about how Black designers have been excluded from the canon. “Typographic work of black designers such as Emory Douglas has wilfully been overlooked”. “Typography by designers of Colour is missing from the design canon for a number of reasons, but the fact is that it was always there, just not visible to those who decided what went into design history” (Dixon, 2024).

Dixon references a quote from Gator that describes “Decolonisation as ‘Responsible expansion’” (Gator in Dixon, 2024).

“Wilful racism has played its part but some of that discrimination is less direct, embedded as it is in operating systems of many kinds. This is where I think it is helpful to understand the exclusive basis on which the idea of the typographic has operated” (Dixon, 2024).

“For me it does matter whether we refer to this work as typography or lettering. It bothers me that this amazing work of [Wadsworth] Jerrell and [Carolyn] Lawrence would need to be positioned as typography to somehow become more legitimate within the design canon. These are extraordinary pieces of visual communication and perhaps al the more extraordinary because they are not typographic. The letterforms are free of the systems that would then have limited such expression. To produce this work required exceptional skill, a skill set that has been rendered invisible by this work having been ignored for so long, but a skillset that is perhaps in danger, I would argue, of continuing to be rendered invisible by being described as typographic. I also don’t want to let the exclusivity that has characterised typography off the hook quite so easily by just elasticating definitions now. It’s not just a case of including previously ignored outcomes into the canon.” (Dixon, 2024)

“We should expand our historiographies and give thanks to those […] doing that challenging work. We should all challenge the remit of what professional graphic design was and is to reclaim lost stories and reconnect with a continuum of visual communication practice but also to help us to be more inclusive going forward.” (Dixon, 2024)

systems #access #bias #control #exclusion

Bibliography

Typography Theory Practice (2024) Catherine Dixon: Admit constraints: then having admitted, fill with discovery. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4EvTqoj0Cs (Accessed: 3 January 2025).

From the Graphic Communication Design course handbook:

“Engaging with climate, racial and social justice in the Graphic Communication Design Community at Central Saint Martins

The accelerating climate and ecological emergency is exposing the unsustainability and injustice of the political, social, and economic systems that have created them. An overarching goal for our programme community has necessarily become to question how graphic communication design practices can critique and intervene in the systems of extraction and exploitation that have led us to the brink of collapse.

Historically, graphic design has serviced various imbalanced power structures, and in this way, has contributed to perpetuating climate, racial and social injustices. At the same time, our discipline’s media and methods provide powerful tools for negotiating and communicating the complexities of the current moment.

The need for high quality and carefully nuanced communication is increasing as the complexity of intersecting crises escalates. In the context of widespread disinformation and cultures of media illiteracy, graphic communication design’s capacity for enhancing existing forms of public discourse – and generating new forms – is much needed.

Our programme is distinct in both its scale and its diversity and is well positioned to engage with our present challenges. We will consider these kinds of questions from a range of creative perspectives:

• How might graphic and communication design engage proactively with wider institutions and systems? • What role might our practices play in envisioning just and sustainable alternatives?
• What is the role of communication in redefining and recreating relations between humanity and nature?

As a community, we will collectively reimagine current and future role(s) for graphic communication design in the face of these urgent crises. We see this as a serious and vital challenge—the future has yet to be designed!”

Thinking about how my project aligns with UALs ‘Climate, racial and social justice principles’ and how GCD is framing this on our course handbook.

My intervention looks at Racial and Social justice in terms of decolonising the curriculum and institution, “decolonisation and decarbonisation of our education and creative practices.” (UAL, 2023), p.1).

It also aligns with “Cultivate systems thinking and practices that meaningfully acknowledge the interconnections and complexity of life on earth.” By looking at alternative knowledge sources, other than those associated with the Western canon and capitalism. And also ” design for possible futures”, typography, type design being part of a future language system that acknowledges global differences in cultures.

“Design for human equity, social and racial justice by mobilising critical thinking, humbly questioning the norms, practices and biases embedded in our societies and cultures. We recognise and reflect on our individual actions and societal values through self-awareness and reflective practice.”

This part I found to be particularly relevant as my intervention looks at how different cultures can be represented equally in a visual language that truly is representative of nuanced cultural differences.

References

University of the Arts London (2024) BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design Course Handbook 2024–25. London: UAL

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the oppressed, 1968

Paulo Freire’s quote is a key driver of my intervention. That students and tutors are all learning and teaching each other. In the case of my intervention, teaching the group about knowledges relating to their own identities, drawing upon visual approaches, theories, and practical and technical knowledge from their own cultural, racial, social backgrounds

The Black Experience in Design

Identity, Expression & Reflection
Anne Berry, et al. 2022

I would like to retire the Paul Rand look. I would like to retire mid-century Helvetica. I want to retire flush left. I want to retire white space. It is the look of my oppressor … a mid-century era when it wasn’t easy to enter the New York marketplace as a Black designer. When I see that look, the only thing it says to me is, “You cannot enter. You don’t belong. You’re not good enough.”

Cheryl D Miller, in Berry et al, 2022

This amazingly powerful quote by graphic designer Cheryl D Miller is used in Ruha Benjamin’s foreword in The Black Experience in Design. It talks about the idea that meaning in design, and in this example typography, depends on who you are, where you are from, your upbringing and social status. This is a really interesting interrogation of the so-called universal language of modernism and what we, in the West, might think of as a progressive, liberal, democratic design language.

This really changed my understanding of modernist typography and has helped me to think about and develop my ARP intervention and approach to teaching more generally. Specifically, thinking about how students should be encouraged to develop their own typographic language, and to consider people from alternative cultures, communities and how these audiences might interpret the visual characteristics of typefaces in different ways.

In the foreword, the author talks about how the experiences of Black designers offer us “invaluable insights into the possibilities for understanding our collective experiences. These stories also inform action, specifically about how design will be taught, researched, practised, curated, critiqued and created in the future.” (Berry, et al, 2022, p.11).

This quote sets the scene for what I would like my intervention to achieve. To encourage students to explore their experiences and identities to create new design languages that open up possibilities for how we might see the discipline of typography and Graphic Design.

After following a link to the full conversation between Cheryl D Miller and Eugene Korsunskiy on www.medium.com, I read more about Miller’s thoughts on this subject.

The quote originally came from a webinar organized by Chris Rudd at the IIT Institute of Design (“The Future Must be Different from the Past: Embracing an Anti-Racist Agenda”). Miller was asked to reflect about the elements of contemporary graphic design that she believes symbolise racism and oppression and the above quote followed.

The author of the conversation, Eugene Korsunskiy, shares similar concerns to me, as a white educator, who often presents minimalism, order, grids, white space as ‘good’ design. He lists four takeaways from his conversation with Miller:

I have to saturate my visual experience with diverse images

I have to learn and teach the history — the whole history

I have to lean on my students as collaborators in this journey

This last point really stood out to me and connected to my plans for my intervention and how I work with the students.

“An important truth that I already know is: my students are not there to be passive recipients of my wisdom and knowledge. I have to make them real collaborators in this effort — I have to make them learn with me, and make them help me (and each other) see better.” (Korsunskiy, 2020)

This really ties in to my research project, so that rather than me thinking it I my responsibility to learn everything and show my students everything I know. We can explore together, as they bring so much more than me to the table, in terms of knowledge, experiences, skills, from all over the world, that represent different cultures and identities.

In the conversation, Cheryl D. Miller suggests this as a teaching exercise:

“Take a brand — say, McDonald’s, or Coca-Cola, or Disney — and study what it looks like in four different points on the globe. Look at Coke packaging in Brazil, and in Asia, and in North America, and in Paris. And let’s talk about what we see.”

“I even suggest going to the corner grocery and convenience stores in Black, Latinx or Asian neighborhoods and look at the food packaging. […] food packaging can reveal a lot about design ethnicities.”

“You’ll start to decolonize your students’ point of view — and your own — if you have them do this kind of documentation. Look, you don’t have the answers yourself. So, get them busy!” (Miller, in Korsunskiy, 2020)

“I can give my students an opportunity to practice speaking multiple design languages, and develop a felt sense of how identity can shape design — and an understanding that many different identities can shape many different (equally valid) design expressions.” (Korsunskiy, 2020)

This idea of getting students to practice speaking multiple design languages and how identity can shape design and the validity of this is really connected to my thinking of my ARP intervention, this is what I want to do with the typeface design project.

Bibliography

Berry, A.H. et al. (Eds) (2022) The Black Experience in Design : Identity, Expression and Reflection, , Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=6866123.

Korsunskiy, E. (2020) ‘Dismantling White Supremacy in Design Classrooms: My Conversation With Design Guru Cheryl D. Miller’, Future of Design in Higher Education. Accessed 20 December 2024 (https://medium.com/fdhe/dismantling-white-supremacy-in-design-classrooms-my-conversation-with-design-guru-cheryl-d-miller-5dc9c48b15e4_

Anoushka Khandwala

Decolonising design

CSM Graphic Communication Design colleague Anoushka Khandwala writes for the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) ‘Eye on Design’ about what it actually means to decolonise design.

In the article, Khandwala reflects on how designers are inspired by our individual taste, derived from our upbringing, linking to our individual experiences of identity, background, race and social status.

Khandwala argues that exposure to the Western design canon, whether directly or indirectly through educational institutions, shapes the design development of students, shapes them into a European mould.

“The work designers make is inspired by taste, and taste is often derived from what we’re exposed to during our upbringing. But design values and history is taught through a canon; that accepted pantheon of work by predominantly European and American male designers that sets the basis for what is deemed “good” or “bad.” The authority of the canon has undermined the work produced by non-Western cultures and those from poorer backgrounds so that Ghanaian textiles, for example, get cast as craft rather than design.”

Khandwala, 2019

My own experience of design school

I recall this happening at art school, what felt like a positive influence, learning about design in lectures and class projects but also being influenced by the architecture of the Lethaby building, work displayed on walls, books in the library, London design culture more generally, exhibitions at the Barbican, etc. But there is definitely an aspect of this that is about losing part of one’s own cultural identity in your work.

In more progressive art/design schools (CSM for example), there is noticeably less teaching from the canon, I recall only a couple of contextual / design history lectures at CSM. We were encouraged to explore the subject in the way we wanted to. I don’t recall anyone really looking at the reading lists.

So the ideal goal would be that students are encouraged to nurture their own tastes, find ideas and research their own cultural backgrounds and share this knowledge with a cohort that is diverse in terms of race, social background, nationality, gender, sexuality, politics, etc and that this creates a discourse where different views, knowledges and practices are valued and encouraged to develop.

One great tutor I had at the University of East London, would encourage students to explore their own backgrounds and experience in their work as he would say, “your experience is valid” and encouraged this perspective as a way to develop our own approach to design and develop design languages that reflected our experiences.

How we move away from teaching from the canon

One could argue that even in progressive institutions, like CSM, where a lot of work has been done to centre the learning on each student’s individual experience, is still operating within a institution who’s legacy is part of a colonial system. The influences of class, race, etc permeate in a multitude of subtle ways, from the lack of diversity in the student demographic, in teaching staff, in reading lists and resources, but even in the way the library is organised for example.

Often what we end up doing when pointing students to references is reproduce these white male references, as we grew up with them and they are the most prominent. There is also the issue of hierarchy, what is considered serious or professional in terms of references. It’s easier to diversify a set of references but there tends to be an emphasis on the references from the Western canon as neon the more advanced, serious, professional, etc. Others from marginalised communities as often presented as amateur, less-professional, outsider, less sophisticated, ‘other’.

Distinctions and divisions can “other” both designers and designs. Simba Ncube, a graphic design student and researcher at London’s Central Saint Martins, describes his experience of being labelled as a “Black designer:” “While identity and solace can be found in the words, they still ‘other’ the practitioner and therefore their work,” he says. “When Western conventions are centred in design, this means that anything else is seen as ‘different.’” When a homogenous group of people decide what’s “good,” it’s detrimental to the profession, and results in the majority of people striving towards a similar style.

Khandwala, 2019

So as tutors we need to work against this ‘othering’ and flatten the hierarchy of references, and the way we discuss knowledge and acknowledge sources of knowledge from cultures other than the West.

Students are learning about design, and look to please the tutors, or meet the learning outcomes, in order to achieve good grades. When they look for examples of ‘good’ design and see these models from the Western canon, this affects what they are striving to achieve.

As a global society, if we are to learn about how design can improve the world around us and value the environment, then we will benefit from alternative ways of thinking to those that have brought us to our current state.

What are the realities of attempting decolonisation?

Khandwala talks later about the challenges of decolonisation: “Realizing that the standards we’ve been taught are not universal is key to decoloniality. And it’s not easy: Ncube likens the process of unseeing Western culture as getting a “fish to understand that it’s in water.”” (Khandwala, 2019).

Khandwala references educator and designer Danah Abdulla (one member of the research group Decolonising Design) and uses her quote: “decoloniality is about shattering the familiar.” (Abdulla, quoted in Khandwala, 2019).

Khandwala makes the connection to capitalism and as ‘”an instrument of colonization,” and therefore that it’s almost impossible to truly decolonize in Western society at present’ (Khandwala, 2019).

So a key aspect of the argument of decolonisation is to see the Western canon as one approach of many different regional views or approaches. It’s also important for designers to consider a diverse audience for their work and that the meaning of one design language may not mean the same thing for others.

‘The process can extend to something small like selecting typefaces. Many designers will spring for a certain font because it’s “timeless.” But will a diverse audience see it the same way?’

Khandwala, 2019

Khandwala also presents tips for decolonizing our design practices:

“To avoid taking charge of another’s narrative, or appropriating what isn’t yours, recognize when a project is not yours to take. When it’s not, promote someone more appropriate to take your place.”

Khandwala, 2019

“Therefore taking yourself out of the equation can be an opportunity to ensure people from marginalized backgrounds get a place in the creative community.”

Khandwala, 2019

“Working with minority owned printers, for example, is one way of decolonizing design labor”.

Khandwala, 2019

Khandwala’s closing statements talk about the “process” of decolonisation, something we should all aim to work towards but that there is no easy finite fix:

“Ultimately, there is no finite end that we’re trying to reach: Decolonization is a process. The fact that it’s a journey means that in order to keep evolving, we must be continually curious, and educate ourselves about what we haven’t experienced directly.”

Khandwala, 2019

#decolonisation #canon #taste #capitalism #identity

Bibliography

Khandwala, A. (2019) ‘What Does It Mean to Decolonize Design?’, AIGA Eye on Design, accessed 19 November 2024 (https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-does-it-mean-to-decolonize-design/)