Design Drafts – an open call for new design writers
“Is design just a game?”
This is the question posed by Design Drafts, a new ongoing writing programme launched today by Disegno and the Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI) that is devoted to nurturing new voices and perspectives within design writing and criticism.
On Thursday 28 April, HNI and Disegno launched the open call in Rotterdam. The programme aims to build a network dedicated to investigating what it means to write about design today, and provide opportunities and support for those looking to establish themselves within the field.
For its inaugural iteration, Design Drafts has issued an open call focused on the theme “Is design just a game?” Applicants are invited to apply to the programme with a proposal addressing the issues that it raises, with shortlisted proposals to then be judged by an international panel of judges comprising Aric Chen, Marjanne van Helvert and Nanjala Nyabola.
The open call will run for one month, after which six selected applicants will be invited to participate in writing and editing workshops with the Disegno and HNI teams. Over the course of three months, each writer will be supported to create a piece of long-form, paid writing that will be featured in Disegno #34, with all six texts also published within a stand-alone publication.
Details of the open call follow below.
Is design just a game?
Design has often been portrayed as a problem-solving discipline par excellence: a solution oriented industry working for the betterment of all. But how does design identify the problems it is aiming to solve, and what if the solutions it is putting forward are mere accelerationism? Ultimately, what if design is all just play acting?
Image by Ramak Fazel for ‘Emeco Abides’ photoessay, Disegno #32 .
Faced with global systems of inequity, climate collapse and economic disparity, are the proposals being put forward by designers to improve matters simply performative? Has the ascendency of gamification and video game culture become the major force shaping contemporary design, particularly with the re-introduction of virtual reality social media platforms? What is the role of the designer in light of user created content, under the threat of a failing royalties system, and plummeting funding for the arts? And are open calls, such as this one, contributing to the competitive and game-like experience of the field?
Where do designers and the design field stand in relation to the powers they have often imagined to transform? What other ways are there for designers to approach societal matters beyond a solution-oriented mindset? And, what if there is not ‘a’ problem for designers to ‘solve’ in the first place.
An international jury have been invited to select six writers from the open call: Aric Chen (general and artistic director Het Nieuwe Instituut); Marjanne van Helvert (designer, researcher and writer of The Responsible Object: A History of Design Ideology for the Future) and Nanjala Nyabola (political analyst, activist, and writer of Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Kenya).
Disegno #34 and the accompanying Design Drafts publication will be released in September 2022.
For full details on how to apply, visit the HNI website here.
designdrafts.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/en/opencall
Design Drafts open call will close 28 May 2022 and 23:00 GMT/00:00 CET.
No experience in formal publishing and design writing is required. We also do not ask for a CV and there is no age limit to this open call.