About
depatriarchise design is a non-profit association based in Basel, Switzerland.
Our mission is to:
- Radically democratize the access to design education and discourse.
- Empower and amplify the voices of womxn, BIPoC, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, and others from marginalized backgrounds.
We understand design as an expansive social and political practice, examining the objects, systems, and structures that shape our lived realities. We are particularly sensitive to exposing design’s entanglements and complicity in reproducing systems of oppression. Echoing the words of designer, researcher and educator Danah Abdulla, we are committed to “imagining design otherwise.” She views design “as a realm of possibilities that acknowledges that there are alternatives to these possibilities and alternatives to the alternatives.” Engendering critical, inclusive, situated and respectful modes of storytelling, we foster networks of transnational solidarity committed to social, spatial and environmental justice.
Our online directory Feminist Curricula maps and documents emerging feminist design pedagogies across the planet. Through our platform Futuress, we facilitate online workshops, lectures and discussions on design research, writing, and creative storytelling. There, we also publish a wide range of stories on a weekly basis, including articles and essays produced by workshop participants, transcripted lectures, and original pieces by our team, often in collaboration with partner organizations. With our many channels, depatriarchise design supports the next generation of killjoy designers, researchers, journalists, and activists—who, scattered throughout the globe, problematize the role of design, and challenge power and privilege.
History
depatriarchise design was created in 2017 as a call-for-action against the seemingly apolitical, but deeply problematic design discipline. What originally began as a blog quickly grew into a manifold investigative activist practice spanning texts, workshops, lecture series, short films, and much more. Rooted in intersectional feminism, our driving force has always been the urgency to challenge design’s dominant paradigms, which are deeply interwoven with discriminating structures. At the heart of our focus is education: the ongoing research of feminist pedagogies, and a deep belief in the urgency to radically transform hegemonic modes of learning, teaching, and producing design. Since 2018, we are a non-profit association based in Basel, Switzerland.
In 2021, depatriarchise design merged with the Basel-based non-profit common-interest, which was founded in 2018. Operating at the intersection of knowledge production, exchange, and mediation, common-interest conceived, organized, and produced texts, publications, exhibitions, workshops, events, and more. Using design as a lens to critically look at the world, a tool to bring people together, and a means to make socially relevant insights public, its projects focused on social justice, untold stories, and environmental issues.
In 2019, common-interest conceived Futuress, originally as a speculative website collecting feminist design books that were “yet to be written.” In the summer of 2020, Futuress was reimagined as a hybrid between an online magazine and a community space. Since then, it has grown into a vibrant platform for design politics, with active members dispersed through five continents. With the 2021 merger, Futuress is now run by depatriarchise design.
Credits:
Maya Ober, co-director
Nina Paim, co-director
Mio Kojima, editorial assistant, Futuress
Cherry Ann-Davis, associate editor and facilitator, Futuress
Sacha Fortuné, copyeditor, Futuress
Iyo Bisseck, facilitator, Futuress; website designer and programmer depatriarchise design
Morgan Brown, website programmer, Futuress
Former team members:
Anja Neidhardt, co-director, depatriachise design, 2018-2021
Eliot C. Gisel, co-director, common-interest, 2018–2021
Mayar El Bakry, co-organizer, depatriarchise design *!Labs!*
Naz Naddaf, curatorial assistant, common-interest, 2018-2019
Mariachiara de Leo, design assistant, common-interest, 2019
Madeleine Morley, Futuress editor, 2020
Acknowledgments:
Over the last years, we have been grateful to receive the support of a wide range of people and institutions for which we are tremendously grateful. We would like to thank everyone who shared this journey with us, but especially Anja Neidhardt, Eliot C. Gisel, Madeleine Morley, Abigail Schreider, Alaa Diaa, Amanda Haas, Ann Kern, Anna Niederhäuser, Benedetta Crippa, Bianca Elzenbaumer, Catherine Walthard, Céline Baumann, Charlotte Truwant, Cherry Ann Davis, Clara Balaguer, Claudia Mareis, Claudia Scheer, Danah Abdulla, the Decolonizing Design Group, Diana Campbell Betancourt, Dries Rodet, Elise Connor, Emily Smith, Fran Khamis Giacoman, Francisco Laranjo, Griselda Flesler, Huraera Jabeen, Imad Gebrayel, Inteza Shariar, Ivana Jovic, Iyo Bisseck, Johanna Lewengard, Julia Sommerfeld, Justyna Kabala, Laura Pregger, Lea Sievertsen, Loraine Furter, Luiza Prado,, Mariachiara de Leo, Mathilde Avogadro, Matylda Krzykowski, Mayar El Bakry, Mio Kojima, Miriam Lahunsen, Mirjam Fischer, Na Kim, Naz Naddaf, Ornella Galvani, Paul Bailey, Paula Minelgaité, Phillip Sack, Prem Krishnamurthy, Robert Lzicar, Sacha Fortuné, Sandra Hughes, Sara Ahmed, Sara Teleman, Sarah Owens, Sepake Angiama, Silva Baum, Squirrel Nation, Tanveer Ahmed, Vera Sacchetti, Fabian Harb, Paco Zea Garcia, Nour Perel Zea Ober and Otto Paim, and too many others to be able to list here and from whom we learned so much over the past years!
This website uses the typeface New Rail Alphabet (originally called Britanica) created by Margaret Calvert in 1965.