What can design do?

Seeding knowledge is fundamental to create change, here at The Little Disruptors’ Co-Op we offer individuals and companies to participant in research projects to explore the autonomous question - What can design do?

It is widely documented that the planet is in ecological crisis and we are now within the epoch of the Anthropocene, a term derived from the Greek words anthropo ‘man’ and cene ‘man’. This time in our planets history has been triggered by humanities desire for infinite growth, accumulation and capital gain. This is the current linear way of thinking of the globalised fashion system. However, what if there is a re-imagined way of creating, making and celebrating human craft. A way, that is in symbiosis with nature and not incongruence with the very thing we have evolved and grown from?

A concept developed from Tony Fry’s Defuturing: A new design philosophy and Kate Fletcher & Mathilda Tham’s Earth Logic.

Futuring is the philosophy of design that recognises that design is politics. This concept viewed negatively, places design as a servant of the economy, with the sole purpose of creating a saleable product for capital gains. Conversely, Futuring recognises design as an agent for change and a tool for activist against the past practices that have place the world on ‘Red Alert’. As stated by Julia Watson in her Lo-Tek Design by Radical Indigenism (2019:397) “as designers, our role is to create a new ground for positive engagement with nature…[and] as designers we need to remember we are part of nature.”

Here at the Little Disruptors’ Co-Op, we believe in collaboration on research projects, seeding knowledge through workshops and consultancy throughout the fashion industry and working with designers to radically re-imagine the fashion design process. You are invited to learn how your intuitive value align with Futuring.