Design is rapidly changing facing global shifts and challenges. Amidst these economic, socio-cultural and political currents, design as a discipline, as well as designers as practitioners, must redefine their role in society. Henry Dreyfuss named his famous book “Designing for People” in 1955, to offer an alternative to the market-focused design for the industry, predominantly central in his time. While from the early 1990s inclusive design, originated in the UK, framed an innovative and important change, we believe it is time to outline a new path for designers, in face of the intricate challenges awaiting in the coming years.

We chose the title “design beyond wellbeing” to highlight these challenges, as achieving wellbeing for us is not enough. Following a path of ‘value-based design’ we stress for designers to base their practice on two key notions: first, integrating design’s sub-disciplines and focusing instead on specific subject-matters (social design, healthcare, education); second, we believe that to meet side challenges, designers must originate their practice through a defined set of values.

Go to our online graduates exhibition