THE

DESIGN
JUSTICE
NETWORK
MEDIA REPORT

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TABLE OF
CONTENTS
1 2
Summary of Comparative
Web Presence Media
Analysis

4 5
Summary of Summary of
Misson Social Object

6 8
Analysis of Storytelling
Social Media and Strategy
Community Engagement Suggestions

9 10
Conclusions Works
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and Suggestions Cited
 SUMMARY OF
WEB PRESENCE

The Scotland Design Justice Network does not have many

established social media platforms of their own as of right
now, such as Facebook and Instagram, so we decided to
analyze the official page of the Design Justice Network
(@designjusticenetwork) overall. Looking at the page at
first glance, the bio contains a brief description of what
the organization is about, along with a link to their
website. In regards to their posts, they include graphics of
the upcoming virtual meeting dates and times. They also
include upcoming node meetings/meetups, which are
spaces for local members to gather and share all design
justice related ideas and projects. Images from past in
person meetings can also be seen along with a focus on
art, graphic design, and social change.

The Scotland Node does have their own Twitter account

which currently features only 4 tweets. The content is
similar to that of the DJN’s official pages in that they
speak about what they do and why they do it.

1 02
 COMPARATIVE
MEDIA
ANALYSIS

1
Civic Hall (@civichall)
Based in NYC, “Civic Hall is a non-profit center for
learning, collaboration, and technology for the public
good. At Civic Hall, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders,
government staff, community organizers, philanthropists,
software developers, data scientists and media makers
come together to share knowledge and solve pressing
public interest problems” (The Team at Civic Hall). They
are not affiliated with the Design Justice network, but have
similar goals and concepts, such as increasing the
captivity of civic-minded individuals and organizations to
make a change in the world.

2
AIGA Eye on Design (@aigaeyeondesign)
“The best new work by the world’s most exciting designers—
and the issues they care about, from @AIGAdesign’s Eye on
Design.” Although this page is not affiliated with Design
Justice Network, they share a similar belief in the idea of
human design for social issues. This page is the perfect model
in that they showcase work, however there isn’t too much or
too little being taken away from the brand identity and
purpose, which is what our community partners mentioned
they wanted.

2 03
 COMPARATIVE
MEDIA
ANALYSIS

3
UMD Design Justice (@designjustice_umd)
UMD Design Justice works through personal reflection to
help the community. They are not affiliated with the
Design Justice Network but they have a similar motive in
their work. A highlight of their Instagram stories says that,
“through anti-racist curriculum, we are training emerging
designers to understand that we must intentionally work
to dismantle the structural oppression built into our
communities, and protect and celebrate communities of
Color, especially Black communities, that are constantly at
threat of upheaval gentrification, and poverty.”

Civic Hall AIGA Eye On Design UMD Design Justice

3
(@civichall) (@aigaeyeondesign) (@designjustice_umd)
 THE GOLDEN
CIRCLE
The Golden Circle, as explained by Simon Sinek, describes the what, how, and
why of an organization. The "what" explains the product the company sells or
the services they provide. Simon Sinek discusses in his book, "Start With Why:
How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action", that the why should be the
center of any organization. People care more about why you do something
rather than what you do. The Golden Circle is three concentric circles with the
‘what on the outside,' the ‘how’ in between, then the 'why' at the center of it all.

For Design Justice UK, the what’ are conversations, meetings, and research to
help them implement social media to spread their mission. They also are
constantly viewing design ideas and putting them into action. The how of a
company is the way that they do what they do which can set them apart from
other businesses that are similar to their own. For Design Justice UK, the ‘how’ is
creating accessible and equal design. The why of a company provides a clear
answer to their purpose. For Design Justice UK, the ‘why’ is to heal, sustain and

4
empower different communities in order to seek liberation from exploitative and
oppressive systems.
 SUMMARY OF
SOCIAL OBJECT
The content of the Design Justice UK node focuses on the Design Justice
Principles as the foundation, meaning that functionality is essential. Nothing should
be overdone or inaccessible to others. The ideas of attainability and accessibility
are essential aspects of what is produced in order to appeal to everyone, not just a
select few. The account should feel “real” and “transparent” in order to get the
authentic message of Design Justice across. Sharing the importance of accessible
and equal design and creating design that does not have a single lens is the basic
goal for the node.

To create a thriving “knowledge culture” (91 B:Social Book) amongst the Design
Justice Network is imperative. It is important that a cohesive voice is sustained
through the content that is produced. The Design Justice Network UK is “aiming to
spread this mission” of accessible and equal design and to build the community of
designers working towards their goal in their region. In practice, by using the string
theory, the content focused principles that they are looking for can be achieved.
The string theory connects different aspects of the social objects. A social object,
as described by Jyri Engestrom, is an object that creates a human connection
between people. In this case, the social object is design and digital media. By
creating social media platforms, Design Justice UK will be able to reach others that
are interested in Design Justice in their area to build that community they are
looking for. They can build their platforms to be specific to this node of Design
Justice by creating their own designs, through color pallets, logos, and specialized
posts. Through social media and graphic designs, Design Justice UK will be
changing the narrative of design, making it one that is accessible for all, bringing
people together in the way the Social Object Theory explains.

5
 ANALYSIS OF
SOCIAL MEDIA AND
COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT
The Scottish node of the DJN has their own, new, Twitter account. The handle is
@djnscotland. The profile picture for this account is the same pink, green, and white
colors that are in the profile picture on the main account and on the Design Justice
website. The header is white. This account also gives a brief description of the DJN
with the link to the main website linked. It has 88 followers.

There are only 4 tweets on this account so far, all made by the actual account. The
content of the tweets is about what they do and what design justice is; the tweets are
very informative about the network. All of the tweets were made between August
17th and August 20th and no tweets have been made since.

6
 ANALYSIS OF
SOCIAL MEDIA AND
COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT
The Scottish node of the Design Justice Network does not yet have their own
Facebook page or Instagram account. We looked at the main DJN account for some
background, not yet knowing the design route the Scotland node wants to take to
make themselves different from that of the larger organization.

Most of the content on both the Facebook and Instagram

shares content that represents their mission or events that designers are currently
attending that surround social justice
issues within design. the Scotland node can use the content the DJN platforms post as
a guideline of the kind of content to be posting.

7
 STORYTELLING
STRATEGY
SUGGESTIONS
Although the Design Justice UK node is not fully established yet, their principles
align with those that the Design Justice Network has already mapped out. Overall,
Design Justice generates shared principles and they use these principles of design
in order to tell a story. The mission of the Design Justice Networks is to implement
storytelling through design and through using design for social impact, using design
to highlight the voices and stories of those impacted by design. Their method for
storytelling is explained through their principles and how they plan to use them.

This collected organization began its journey on June 21, 2015 with 30 people
gathering in a session called “Generating Shared Principles for Design Justice” at the
Allied Media Conference in Detroit.” The large group began to shape the
identification of design justice along with involving its important structures to
emphasize the importance and need of design intervention. A year later (2016) the
network was finally established. Sharing their created principles, the organization
began to hold large gatherings sharing the importance of working in social justice
and creating a defined principle of Design Justice. Along with its network principles
creating a community to apply and support the network. Finalizing their principles in
2018, the network began to edit and transform these important principles that are
used today amongst their network. Design Justice Network lastly began to formalize
a strong structure in 2019, and the team began to organize, engage, and work
together on their significant nodes and projects. By establishing and finalizing these
principles, The Design Justice Network was able to establish a foundation for how
they plan to use design to tell their stories.

The Design Justice Network works to help those that are too often and most
marginalized by design, using storytelling as a tool to do so. They follow centralized
principles that are used and followed by all of the nodes combined. They have many
principles, one stating that design is used “to sustain, heal, and empower
communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive
systems.” Design Justice UK will use their platforms to tell a story of inclusivity and
accessibility, by implementing practices like using accessible colors, language, and
legible fonts..

8
 CONCLUSIONS
AND
SUGGESTIONS
In conclusion, our goal while working with the Design Justice Network team is to
positively impact their media while focusing on rethinking design. Our goal is to work
towards creating the foundations of a brand and design identity for the node, based on
what the Design Justice Network stresses through their principles as an organization as
well as what other nodes are doing either through social media or through discussions
on Slack or group meetings etc.

It is important our team understands the mission of The Design Justice Network and
begins to move away from the singular lens that is often put on design, in order to
understand how crucial it is that design needs to be accessible and inclusive to
everyone. The Design Justice Network Scotland Node is still new and just establishing
their presence on social media, but they can look to the mentor accounts we
mentioned as examples of how to establish themselves as a digital presence. By
creating their brand identity through the golden circle and the social object theory, the
node will have a more concrete idea of what that presence should be.

9
 WORKS CITED

Main page: @designjusticenetwork

The 3 mentor accounts: @civichall ,

@aigaeyeondesign ,
@designjustice_umd

Design Justice Network Twitter:

https://twitter.com/djnscotland

Design Justice Network Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/design
justicenetwork

“Read the Principles.” Design Justice

Network, designjustice.org/read-
the-principles.

Sinek, Simon. “How Great Leaders

Inspire Action | Simon Sinek.”

1 YouTube, 4 May 2010,

youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4.