Written by psd.bsky.social / To view other blog entries: index.html
I still don't know why people aren't speaking up against designers. They actively launder the AI death machine craze, they produce propaganda for big corpos who lobby against our rights, they drive reckless consumerism that turns cities into wastelands, and worst of all, they're the biggest hypocrites in the world: they make their whole personality human-centered while stubbornly upholding inhumane organisations, structures, and systems.
I really miss the early days of the Internet, for example. The big tech & co struggled to get users hooked because barely anyone knew how to make an acceptable user experience. If they never hired any designers, they would just die out and drag their pathetic ideas to the grave with them. Instead, those ideas now rule over us. How fucking great!
...
👨👩👧👦
Ok but why are you only blaming us? Don't forget the execs who force us to execute their evil plans, the devs who actually manifest what's on the drawing board, the janitors who clean the HQ, the drivers on the street who didn't crash into me on the way to work, the electricity and water company who keeps us alive, le chatgpt who responds to everyone in my company every single time. It's everyone who's at fault!
🙄
And also, hey you snarky writer, why are you trying to sow division between the working class? I'm under great precarity, I have to take this job. Ultimately, it's not my fault! It's the system's fault!
😠
And also, not every designer does what you said. There are so many designers who are actively advancing good causes, using their skills to prefigure a new world!
These are the types of reactions I would expect to receive for the title of this post and for my first two paragraphs. The thing is, I don't think reactions can ever be that intense under the posts praising the power of design, under the posts arguing for how designers need a seat at the table, explaining how designers empathize, guide, and delight their users, how design can render politics obsolete and change industries with their design thinking silver bullet. Where are the pundits replying "yeah but without the execs and devs you guys can't do all that, yeah but why sowing class division by inflating your importance, yeah but not all designers are good"?
I don't hate designers. I can't hate anyone who is victim of the insane job market, who understands the harms of their practice, who has more guts than me to stand up for why they became designers at the first place. The title is a ragebait, sorry. I hate those who uses "design" as a buzzword to sell courses and services. I hate those who deforms the goal of design into "delivering results for the business", and those who find this grotesque twist acceptable. I hate the systems who produce those kind of people. I hate institutions who use design as a way to distract workers from organizing politically. And I hate those who deflate the power of design when accountability is searching for them. When design does a mildly good thing, it is suddenly the miracle cure to all problems in the world. When design makes things worse, no it doesn't because design is powerless, and if it does, it's not supposed to.