Decolonizing Design

A guidebook to the institutional transformation of design theory and practice by restoring the long-excluded cultures of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities. From the excesses of world expositions to myths of better living through technology, modernist design, in its European-based guises, has excluded and oppressed the very people whose lands and lives it reshaped. Decolonizing Design first asks how modernist design has encompassed and advanced the harmful project of colonization—then shows how design might address these harms by recentering its theory and practice in global Indigenous cultures and histories. For leaders and practitioners in design institutions and communities, Dori Tunstall’s work demonstrates how we can transform the way we imagine and remake the world, replacing pain and repression with equity, inclusion, and diversity—in short, she shows us how to realize the infinite possibilities that decolonized design represents.

Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall; illustrated by Ene Agi

Introduction Decolonizing Design: What Might It Mean? Chapter 1: Putting Indigenous First Chapter 2: Dismantling the Tech Bias in the European Modernist Project Chapter 3: Dismantling the Racist Bias in the European Modernist Project Chapter 4: Making Amends is More than Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Chapter 5: Reprioritizing Existing Resources to Decolonize List of All the Key Take-Aways Acknowledgements Notes