Art and Design Commons^™

Community As Client: Defining Social Design As A Means Of Designing For Good, Ryan Kough Gibboney

Open Access Theses

Approaching the design field today is a significant quantity of societal needs that have potential to be resolved through systematic design initiatives. There is increasing curiosity around the designer's role and responsibility within society; a belief that designers have the power to make social change happen in their own communities. Many neighborhoods with driven community members and professional designers are working together to turn to design as problem solving, as social activism on a local scale. But how do we make this sustainable?

To create a systematic change, designers must rethink the processes in which they view the problems and …