ONLINE EXHIBITION
We Design
People. Practice. Progress.
We Design brings together creatives from a wide range of backgrounds to examine and celebrate the range of career paths, applications, and impact in design. The collaborative, evolving exhibition features career stories showcasing how people have forged their unique paths into different creative professions; from graffiti artists and architects to civic designers and strategic planners, We Design emphasizes the need for more racial and gender diversity in design and innovation fields and highlights the importance of equity and inclusion in terms of generating ideas. Beyond truly representing our community, each story shows that when creatives of different backgrounds and expertise come together, we can effectively create change and design for a more inclusive world.

Taniya Nayak
Interior Designer & Founder
Taniya Nayak Design

Phil Freelon
Principal & Design Director
Perkins and Will

jeffstaple
Founder
Staple Design
Explore the stories and careers of creatives working across seven design fields: Arts & Apparel, Community, Graphics, Objects, Media & Technology, Spatial, and Systems & Strategy.
“You can’t be what you can’t see.”
Marian Wright Edelman
President & Founder
Children’s Defense Fund
A Message from our Executive Director
Welcome to We Design! This exhibition is the result of four years of planning, research, relationship building, and design. To develop this exhibition, in 2016 our team formed a committee of advisors made up of experts in design, art, education, career development, equity, human resources, and more. This group of advisors helped us build partnerships and invite individuals and organizations to get involved and share their stories. This work culminated in a physical exhibition that launched in September 2019 and was traveling to venues across Boston, MA and Portland, OR through mid-March 2020. (See photos from the exhibition here.) With the onset of COVID-19 we had to close our physical exhibitions, but we immediately pivoted to transitioning We Design into an online resource.
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This online exhibition comes at a time when those who have historically held power are more aware than ever before of the Black community’s pain in the wake of centuries of violence against, and murder of, Black people. Many White people are late to this movement, and we all need to ask ourselves why. As the Executive Director of Design Museum Everywhere, I find myself wondering why this wasn’t the first exhibition we produced at the Design Museum? It took the social and political events of the mid-2010s to spur us into action, but the Design Museum launched in 2009 — this should have happened sooner. People in positions of power must stand up for what we know is right and make a better world. We stand with those working to dismantle white supremacy and redesign every system to be just, compassionate, and equitable. One of the systems we at Design Museum Everywhere can make meaningful change within is the design industry itself. I hope this exhibition can serve as a starting point and a resource for designers of all backgrounds — we’ve also posted, and continue to update, a list of anti-racism resources here. I also hope young Black, Indigenous, People of Color see themselves in this exhibition because it is so important to see that path.
We Design is now part of the Design Museum’s permanent collection, meaning it will always be on view online, and once we’re all gathering together again, we’ll resume traveling it to venues around the country. We have more career stories from individuals we featured in the traveling exhibition; we’ll be adding those and more in the weeks, months, and years ahead. These are small steps, we can and will do more; you can learn more about our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives here.
Enjoy We Design, and stay with us as we continue to evolve and grow the online exhibition,
– Sam Aquillano, Executive Director

41% of new hires fail within the first 18 months due to poor cultural fit.

69% of practitioners in the interior design industry are women. Yet, firm leadership is only 25% female.

86% of graphic designers are White.

74% of middle school girls express an interest in engineering, science, and math, but only 0.3% choose computer science as a path when they
get to college.

71.5% of computer, engineering, & science occupations are held by those who identify as White.

74.4% of computer, engineering, & science occupations are held by men.

Black designers only account for 2% of licensed architects working in the U.S., while Black women represent only .2%.

25% of firm leaders are women.

55% of creatives cite lack of awareness of creative professions as a barrier of entry.

Design is Everywhere
Design shapes the world around us.
Arts & Apparel
Focuses on aesthetic expression and anticipating and reflecting cultural and social trends.

Angela Medlin
Founder
Functional Apparel & Accessories Studio (FAAS)

jeffstaple
Founder
Staple Design

Jocelyn Rice
Athletic & Outdoor Apparel Designer
Community
Focuses on the power of collective creativity by increasing opportunity for participants to be shared visionaries in their communities.

Liz Ogbu
Founder & Principal
Studio O

Silvia López Chavez
Artist & Designer

Gabrielle Bullock
Director of Global Diversity
Perkins and Will
Graphics
Creates and combines symbols, images, and text to visually represent ideas. Graphic design involves product marketing, improving communication, changing the aesthetics of places, and more.

Oen Hammonds
Design Principal
IBM

Kat Holmes
Senior Vice President of Design and UX
Salesforce

Sabrina Dorsainvil
Director of Civic Design
New Urban Mechanics
Media & Technology
Deals with how people access information and create a connected and informed world.

Dr. Rodrigo Salazar Gamarra
Health & Tech Innovation Consultant

Saba Ghole
Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer
NuVu Studio

Nestor Castaneda
Senior Composites Engineer
Terrafugia
Objects
Create, plan, and style manufactured goods considering form, function, comfort, accessibility, marketing, sustainability, sales, etc.

Debra Latour
Occupational Therapy Educator
Prosthetics Designer & Advocate

Paloma Medina
Founder & Creative Director
11:11

Marisol Centeno
Founder
Estudio Marisol Centeno & Bi Yuu
Spatial
Shape ideas about spaces and how we navigate them, and ensure that each concept reflects the values and experiences of the people using the spaces.

Elyse Ayoung
Designer
Gensler

Phil Freelon
Principal & Design Director
Perkins and Will

Mikyoung Kim
Founder
Mikyoung Kim Design
Systems & Strategy
Works with big picture change, and involves masterminding strategic and organizational plans based on understanding all the pieces of a larger puzzle. This field applies to challenges like business growth, education, game play, health care, city planning, and climate change.

Ruwan Jayaweera
Associate Principal
PAE Engineers

Taniya Nayak
Founder
Taniya Nayak Design

Denise Rush
Dean of the School of Interior Architecture
Boston Architectural College