dd kick-off 2023-2024

From June 2023 to December 2024, the Democratizing Design team engaged over 1,275 people from the San Diego Tijuana region and global design network through surveys, interviews, and interactive events. Included in this initial research phase were government and civic leaders from San Diego, Carlsbad, Ensenada, and Tijuana, as well as global partners from the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Philippines, Germany, Singapore, New Zealand, Scandinavia, and South America. The work was coupled with the DD team’s multifaceted community engagement strategy composed of binational co-design roundtables and workshops and an awareness campaign including this DD website (www.ddsdtj.com) and social media platforms. The community engagement strategy has four primary tenets: education about humanity-centered design, a common regional design language, a regional design playbook, and a Democratizing Design Model prototype.

the year of dd 2025

The first phase of research and co-design activities culminated in multiple DD presentations and interactive sessions at the WDC 2024 World Design Policy Conference in November 2024. The DD team officially launched the Year of Democratizing Design in 2025,  involving expanded research and community engagement, a case study portfolio, and model refinement. Using a prototype roadmap, the team will apply the DD model within four key sectors: business, civic, education, and creative industries - starting with civic and education sectors and leveraging existing initiatives such as the WDC 2024’s Design to Action Networks (DANs), CETYS's and UC San Diego’s research on Design Just Futures for indigenous and BIPOC populations, and long-standing regional UC San Diego Design Lab alliances and initiatives such as the Design Forward Alliance, Educators Alliance, and Design for San Diego (D4SD).