June 2023
A few months ago, an article by Chris Hockell was published in Dezeen criticising Architects Declare for failing to live up to its ambitions. We have a close relationship with AD and see the hard work that is going on behind the scenes; however the fact that this work is often happening 'behind the scenes' can make it feel to those on the outside that nothing is being done at all.
So the team at Design Declares want to take this opportunity to reaffirm the objectives for the D! campaign and discuss our plans for this year.
In its initiation Design Declares was, and is intended as an awareness campaign. The team who came together to create the campaign and its framework: The 8 Acts and Toolkit, are dedicated to encouraging communication, digital, industrial, and service designers to take action on the climate and ecological crisis by raising awareness and supporting education.
Putting together a campaign takes a lot of hard work. Hard work that was put in not for the money, as the campaign is self-funded, but for the drive to do something as a team that has a greater impact than any of us could achieve individually.
As a way to encourage impact and action in the design industry, we created the Toolkit (head to the website to get access); a crowdsourced collection of resources and design frameworks curated and linked to each of the 8 Acts. This has been regularly updated since launching in September 2022, and provides a one stop shop for information and resources on sustainable and regenerative design. The impact value of the Toolkit and how it is used is constantly evolving as the design industry changes, something we are navigating and working out with the community.
Alongside the Toolkit, the campaign aims to signpost to climate action events such as the Design Council’s Design For Planet festival, and share the great work already being done by designers to inspire others.
Thoughts from Cat Drew, Chief Design Officer at The Design Council:
“ Making a public commitment is a critical first step to changing behaviour, but the hard part does come later. Design Declares is not only doing impressive work to raise awareness of the need to design for the climate emergency, but is also providing a set of resources to support designers from different practices to do so. The rest is over to the industry. We are supporting them by providing a platform for their work at our Design for Planet festival, but also showcasing amazing examples of designers and agencies who are designing to restore the planet, showing what is possible for others to emulate.”
Reading the critique of Architects Declare was frustrating. The majority of work done by Declare Movements is pro-bono, based on the voluntary effort of the key people involved. Getting sponsorship for campaigns such as this can be ambiguous and loaded, and applying for institutional funding is complicated and time demanding. However, without funding it is incredibly hard to maintain momentum when in parallel we have businesses to run, and employees to pay. This challenge is very real. We are always looking for people to get involved to ease the workload and support not just the campaign and community, but the wider picture of impact. To facilitate this further, we are developing content and additional value with the hope to financially sustain the campaign and enable it to continue.
We are always open to philanthropic support and donations - so if you are reading this and believe more can be done, but you don’t necessarily have the time to personally do it - find out how you can support us here.
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