Designing for Dissent

Produced with Guest Editor Rania Adwan, this multimedia project and publication will explore how design practice is a revolutionary force. 

“Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power. But you endure because love is the most powerful force in the universe.” – Bell Hooks

Love is not soft. Love disrupts. Love demands we show up for each other, especially when it’s risky. When it costs us. When it’s hard. When there’s something to lose.

Right now, love looks like using every tool we have—every pixel, every policy, every public space—to design a world worth living in. It means meeting people where they are in their courage and helping them find more of it.

Every day, as designers, we shape how people move through the world—the systems they navigate, the messages they receive, the spaces they inhabit. Today, those systems are failing spectacularly. Rights are disappearing. Communities are under siege. Violence is being normalized. But here’s the thing: design is everywhere power operates, and therefore resistance lives everywhere.

About Designing for Dissent

CoDesign Collaborative is launching Designing for Dissent, our first multimedia publication and related events, to explore how design practice is a revolutionary force. We’re looking for voices that understand design as more than aesthetics—strategy, protest, care, survival. 

What We’re Looking For

Work that challenges, questions, and refuses to accept the world as it is. Whether you work in graphic design, architecture, urban planning, strategic design, or spaces we haven’t even named – if you’re creating solutions that disrupt harmful systems, this is for you.

Questions we’re sitting with:

• How have designers throughout history challenged systems?
• When does “good design” actually maintain oppression?
• How do we design spaces, tools, and systems that enable protest?
• What are we teaching (or not teaching) the next generation?

But honestly, we don’t want to limit your imagination. Surprise us. Challenge us. Show us what we’re missing.

All Formats Welcome

Resistance has always been multimedia. We’re excited to publish essays, photo essays, case studies, how-to guides, profiles, video, audio, interactive work, and experimental formats we haven’t yet thought of. Access matters. Creativity matters. Your unique perspective matters most. 

Work will appear on our website and our social media channels; select pieces will be featured in our print publication.

What Contributors Will Get

We’re a nonprofit that just had our budget slashed. We sadly can’t pay contributors right now. Here’s what we can offer:

• Platform and amplification – Your work reaches CoDesign Collaborative’s engaged community of 10K+ designers, educators, activists, and changemakers
• Full credit and promotion – Byline, bio, links to your work, social media amplification across our channels
• Portfolio credential – Published work in a respected design publication with 15 years of history
• Community membership – Access to CoDesign Collaborative’s network and member benefits
• Solidarity – The chance to be in community with others doing this work, to learn from each other, to build together

We know this isn’t enough. But we also know that some stories need to be told regardless, and some moments demand we use what we have. This is one of those moments.

How to Submit/Timeline

Please fill out this form by Friday, December 5.

Email questions to editors@codesigncollaborative.org.

December 5 | Submission Deadline
December 17 | Contributors will be notified
Week of January 5 | First drafts/submissions are due
Week of January 26 | Editorial feedback
Week of February 9 | Final drafts are due