Call for Participation: The Future of Design 2026 // FoD26
Track II: The Sail – Decrypting Signals from the Next Paradigm
Call for Participation: The Future of Design 2026 // FoD26
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Design & Critical Thinking
Featured Posts
Call for Participation: The State of Design 2026 // SoD26
Track I: The Anchor – System Diagnostics for a Broken Industry
Call for Participation: The State of Design 2026 // SoD26
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2025 Retrospective: Reclaiming Agency and Designing Beyond Enclosures
If 2024 was defined by the noise of AI, 2025 was the year we sought to reclaim our agency. In this retrospective, we look back at the key explorations that defined the Design & Critical Thinking community this year—from the "Trioptic" nature of design to the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze.
2025 Retrospective: Reclaiming Agency and Designing Beyond Enclosures
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The Designer Without Organs: Monism and the End of Identity
This essay explores Monism—specifically Gilles Deleuze’s "pluralist monism"—as a foundational worldview for design. It contrasts this with traditional dualistic approaches and integrates practical exercises and digital examples.
The Designer Without Organs: Monism and the End of Identity
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Designing with Desire
Why “User Needs” Mislead and How Context Shapes What We Want
In contemporary design practice, the language of user needs has become almost axiomatic. Designers are trained to identify needs, frame them as problems, and then generate solutions that meet them. This framing gives the impression of neutrality and rationality:
Designing with Desire
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Making Under Finitude: Designing Interactions That Resist Enclosure
The future of design in a transitioning economy
Making Under Finitude: Designing Interactions That Resist Enclosure
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State of Design 2025 – All contributions
A collection of essays reflecting on the current landscape of design and of the role of the designer.
State of Design 2025 – All contributions
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More Than Tools, More Than Humans: Rethinking How Design Actively Shapes the World, by Kevin Richard
Design is not just a human act—it shapes and is shaped by materials, systems, and environments. This article explores how new materialism and sociology challenge traditional views, revealing how design actively transforms behaviours, power structures, and the world around us.
More Than Tools, More Than Humans: Rethinking How Design Actively Shapes the World, by Kevin Richard
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State of Design (SoD)
A collection of essays reflecting on the current landscape of design and of the role of the designer.
![[Replay] Strategic Design Framework to navigate complex ecosystems](/content/images/size/w600/format/webp/2023/04/Carta_Marina_crop.jpeg)
Solarpunk
An exploration of the Solarpunk movement, how this can impact the way we do design, and what can designers learn from it.
![[Replay] What can designers learn from Solarpunk?](/content/images/size/w600/format/webp/2024/03/green-landscape-with-a-tree-next-to-a-farm-house-and-futuristic-city-integrated-in-the-vegetation-in.jpeg)
Future of Design (FoD)
An inventory of future timeline artifacts.
Multi-Ocean Strategy Framework
Multi-Ocean Strategy Framework (MOSF) is a strategic design tool to map impact and value in complex ecosystems. This project is a collaboration between Kevin Richard from D&CT and Daiana Zavate and Krasi Bozhinkova from Owtcome.
