Visual Design for Impact
This year, together with our community partner EKA, ATÖLYE participated in ImpactFest23 organized by Arkhé Innovate, between September 2–7, 2023. The primary reason for our participation was to conduct a workshop on ‘community-powered design,’ aligning with one of the festival’s themes. If you would like detailed information about both the festival itself and the workshop we held, I recommend reading this article we wrote.
Aside from hosting our workshop, we had the opportunity to meet many people and participate in workshops and speeches organized by other institutions and individuals that are part of the impact ecosystem in Turkey. As someone who spends most of their time in front of the computer and often finds inspiration online, these five days away from the screen were very refreshing for me. This in-person gathering in nature, filled with people from diverse backgrounds, allowed me to gain insights and observations that are challenging to obtain in virtual setups. This is particularly true when discussing complex topics, such as the festival’s themes: ‘Water & Food Security,’ ‘Community-Powered Design,’ ‘Youth & Future,’ and ‘Climate Innovations.’
Not only was it incredibly refreshing to get stuck into these issues in-person, but I was also pleasantly surprised by the level of interest people expressed regarding the field of visual design. I engaged in numerous one-on-one and small group discussions about my perspective on being a visual designer, my role at ATÖLYE and how my work has evolved so far. I’m saying I was surprised because visual design isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind while discussing the world’s urgent and important issues such as food and water security, clean energy, and the quality of education.
However, during our ‘community-powered design’ workshop and other sessions, we always arrived at the question of how can we best convey our ideas, solutions, and recommendations in a digestible way that also evokes emotions? At this very point, we reached the conclusion that we can use the power of visual communication. Visual communication’s strength resides in a designer’s skill to simplify complex and/or data-heavy subjects and convey the narrative in an appealing way which can be challenging to express.
In my view, through a fusion of skills and active participation in discussions — such as participating in the ImpactFest, which serves as a solid example of this active involvement — designers naturally contribute to more intentional design. In this way, as designers, we don’t only do design but also gain a deep understanding of the problem and actively participate in finding solutions. Even though I initially had doubts about my role in an environment without visual designers, being the sole professional visual designer there made me realize that I was exactly where I should be.
If you have any thoughts on how we can utilize visual design for impactful purposes, feel free to get in touch to discuss further.
Editor: Melissa Lara Clissold
