Liberatory Design

 
 
Group of cartoon people stand in a tight circle smiling.

What is liberatory Design?

Liberatory Design is a process and practice to:

  • Generate self-awareness to liberate designers from habits that perpetuate inequity.

  • Shift the relationship between the people who hold power to design and those impacted.

  • Foster learning and agency for those involved in and influenced by the design work.

  • Create conditions for collective liberation.

Liberatory Design is the result of a collaboration between Tania Anaissie, David Clifford, Susie Wise, and the National Equity Project [Victor Cary and Tom Malarkey]. Illustrations by David Clifford.

liberatory Design mindsets

The Liberatory Design Mindsets invoke particular stances and values to ground the Liberatory Design process. These Mindsets catalyze creative courage, conversation, reflection, community-building, storytelling, and action.

These Mindsets aim to:

  • Bring self-awareness and intention to our design practice.

  • Help us recognize oppression in how we live and work and realize alternate ways of being and doing.

  • Expand our frame of reference for what is possible.

  • Inspire creative courage and set a foundation for liberatory collaboration.

 
 

Liberatory Design cycle & Modes

Liberatory Design is both a container for a flexible process and a set of stances for ongoing equity leadership practice.

The Liberatory Design Mindsets express the spirit of the process and the Liberatory Design Modes provide guidance through the process.

Liberatory Design is fluid and emergent. A design process can begin with any mode and move in various directions. As modes, Notice and Reflect represent a set of possible behaviors that refocus our attention and help us maintain our commitment to equity in design processes.

View and download the Liberatory Design Cycle graphic.

A deeper dive

Project Child Success Co-Managers Masa Kawamura and Nneka Payne designed and hosted a three-part series unpacking the Liberatory Design Mindsets and Cycle. For more context and to go deeper into the Liberatory Design concepts, view the videos below.

The Liberatory Design Mindsets & Modes deck is under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). No content was changed.