Join Amanda Huynh, Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute, Ana Mengote Baluca, Independent Designer at lowercase innovation, Anson Cheung, Studio Director/Partner at Bould Design, Danielle Chen, Senior UX Designer at EY Design Studio, and Michelle Lee-Schmidt, Senior Portfolio Director at IDEO for a roundtable discussion where they deconstruct and analyze the role of race in the design industry by sharing their lived experiences navigating the design world, as well as reflections on how their backgrounds have impacted their design perspectives.
Design has a long history with the AAPI community and culture. We’re very dependent on their culture as a source of inspiration, their technical know-how as manufacturers and their talent as designers. But we overlook them. Too often the stories of AAPI are clouded by the model minority myth, invalidating their daily struggles. It’s not a surprise that even if the spike on the violence against AAPI is backed by data, the overwhelming majority still do not think that this is an issue at all.
We know that we have a lot more to do. We’ve invited a panel of guests to paint a picture on how their race affects their experiences that translate to the products they design, their work ethics, morale, and all the other things they pursue.
Race in Design is brought to you by the efforts of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DEIC) of IDSA. We hope that we can continue this series to untangle how race affects the work of designers, and in turn the products that end up being produced.
