Design & Personal Identity
How does our personal identity influence the way we practice as designers?
Lately, I have been feeling uninspired. It is taking me a minute to adjust to the corporate world, shifting away from the free-flowing space of undergrad design education, to the structure of corporate work. I have had to transition from working on what I am truly passionate about to my core to what I need to do for x company… and it’s been hard.
However, more than anything else, I am grateful for the community of designers my company has given me, as there are people that are as just as passionate about design for social good as I am. One of those absolutely lovely people hosted this inspiring session called Afterthought, featuring a series of panels on Co-Creation, a practice in which designers “create” with the intended recipients of the solution.
I don’t think I realized how deprived I was of stimulating design conversation until I was sitting in this room with amazing minds, all mulling over the things that keep me awake at night. It reinvigorated a passion in me — hence this series coming alive again.
This conference touched upon SO many different ideas, and streams of thoughts, so this might get rambly, and will probably lead to many other brain dumps on related topics — so stay tuned folks.
Today’s Stream of Consciousness —Personal Identity
I think today, I want to write about letting your personal identity influence your practice. Often designers are told to be objective, just experts on a subject matter (which I have a whole other stream of thoughts about), but that feels so contradictory to what the practice can stand for. How can we expect people to share thoughts, be vulnerable, be human, if we aren’t doing the same? How can we create a comfortable place of sharing — if we don’t share ourselves?
In my practice, I frequently let my identity influence the designs that I make. Let me share a bit about my identity for those of you reading this that I don’t know.
My name is Mihika and I am a 1st generation immigrant, with family roots in India. I was born in and consider myself to be from the Bay Area, California. I am a daughter, a younger sister, a friend, and an older “sister” to family friends. I am a designer by practice and found my passion for my work in my early interest in art. I care deeply about the Earth and consider myself to be spiritual, as I grew up in a Hindu family. I was taught to care deeply for other people and recognize that I can give a lot with the privileges that I have. I am vocal about issues that I care about but cautious with what I share.
In my early college career, my work skewed towards my South Asian identity — I made work about practicing mindfulness, celebrating the work of Indian craftspeople, challenging colorism, and facilitating difficult conversations between Indian mothers and daughters. For a while, I wondered if I was doing too much, if I needed to be more removed from my work, and if my passion for what I was creating was preventing me from making objective designs that actually solved the problem at hand.
With my capstone, I realized there was actually power in bringing identity into your work. It allowed me to speak to my audience from a place of understanding, not just observation. I realized it is okay to allow past pain to be a reason you seek to find a solution. Feelings and emotions are a valid source of information to bring into a space. It isn’t a hindrance, but rather something that can truly enhance a conversation.
On the other hand, I think it’s crucial to not let personal identity become a shield to understanding other’s positions on a topic. Recognize People are not a monolith and that your personal experience with a topic will not be representative of others. Recognizing there will be things that you do not know and experiences that don’t come in parallel with your identity. It is also so valid to step away from something when it is too close, especially when you aren’t doing the work for yourself.
I think the best designs come from a place of deep human emotions and genuine connection. Personal identity is a wealth of knowledge and something that should inform your practice.
So I leave you with the question:
