Decolonizing Design A Cultural Justice Guidebook

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.

A leading figure in the movement to decolonize design, Dori Tunstall uses hard-hitting real-life examples and case studies drawn from over fifteen years of working to transform institutions to better reflect the lived experiences of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities. Her book is at once enlightening, inspiring, and practical, interweaving her lived experiences with extensive research to show what decolonizing design means, how it heals, and how to practice it in our institutions today.

For leaders and practitioners in design institutions and communities, 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 is Dean of the Faculty of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto, the first Black person to hold such a post in the world. Her work has been featured in Print magazine, Fast Company, AIGA’s Eye on Design, and Design Observer, among other venues.

Introduction
Decolonizing Design: What Might It Mean? 9
Chapter 1
Decolonizing Design Means Putting Indigenous First 15
Chapter 2
Decolonizing Design Means Dismantling the Tech Bias in the European Modernist Project 39
Chapter 3
Decolonizing Design Means Dismantling the Racist Bias in the European Modernist Project 55
Chapter 4
Decolonizing Design Means Making Amends through More than Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 71
Chapter 5 
Decolonizing Design Means Reprioritizing Existing Resources to Decolonize 97
List of All the Key Takeaways 104
Acknowledgements 110
Notes 112
Index 122