Design has long been positioned as something exclusive—something reserved for professionals with certain training, credentials, or job titles. The design industry, especially in the Global North, has built systems of gatekeeping that suggest design is a specialized skill rather than a human capacity.
But the truth is: everyone designs.
And we always have.
How we define design at Design Changemakers
Think about how the word “design” is used in everyday language. When someone says they’re “designing a plan” or “designing a life that works for them,” they’re pointing to the notion that design is an act of shaping the world with intention. Not necessarily with fancy tools or design degrees, but with creativity, thoughtfulness, and care.
When we use this creative power intentionally to liberate us from oppression, we can move toward liberatory futures—futures where all beings thrive and flourish.
Design outside of "professional" contexts
We’ve seen many manifestations and examples of design throughout history that fall outside of dominant design narratives and professional contexts:
1. Black communities creating mutual aid networks, safety plans, and resistance strategies to survive and thrive in the face of systemic violence
2. Indigenous communities designing governance systems, ecological practices, and knowledge-sharing methods rooted in relationality and care for the Land
3. Grassroots organizers crafting protest movements, community centers, and healing spaces that are deeply intentional by design—even if never labeled as "design"
Let's take a look at one of those examples in detail.
The Underground Railroad was a secret network that helped enslaved people of African descent escape to freedom during the era of slavery in the United States, primarily between 1810 and 1850. When we examine it closely, we see that it was an organic, community-crafted design rooted in collective survival and liberation.
Its design as a navigation system emerged from the intimate knowledge and generational wisdom of enslaved peoples. They created a living network of routes, signals, and safe harbors, guided by deep community connections, shared survival strategies and harnessed creativity. Quilts, songs, and oral traditions became complex communication tools, with each community contributing its unique local knowledge to build resilient, decentralized pathways to freedom.
Expanding our view of design
Design isn’t just wireframes, logos, or product strategy. It’s how we shape our environments, our systems, our relationships, and our futures.
When we reduce design to an "elite" profession, we erase the wisdom, labor, and creativity of those who have always been designing for survival, connection, and justice—especially those most impacted by oppression.
I invite you to reclaim and expand your understanding of what design is, and who gets to be called a designer.
The next time you think about design, don’t just picture a (young, white male) designer in front of a Figma board. Picture a grandmother designing a food distribution system for her neighborhood. Picture an activist designing a protest route. Picture a teacher redesigning their classroom to make space for every student to belong and learn to the fullest of their potential.
Design is everywhere—and it belongs to all of us.
