Network Across Design Industries to Lengthen Talent Pathways

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For the past couple of years, I have been involved in AIGA diversity and inclusion initiatives as it responds to a lack of diversity in the design industry. To address this problem, I hear many designers gravitate toward well-established solutions such as volunteer work at elementary schools to teach design education, mentoring, and design scholarships. These solutions are excellent. I support and participate in them myself. But they all have one thing in common: They’re not focused on solving the problem of what happens to these young people 15-20 years later when many will inevitably leave the industry or never move into leadership or influencer levels. When they become our peers, how do we ensure they stay in the game?

If there’s a path toward progress that either needs to deepen or hasn’t been made at all, I’m taking it. My biggest concern with diversity in the design industry has been the lack of talent in the later Influence/Workforce phases of Jacinda Walker’s design journey diagram (above). That as designers from traditionally marginalized backgrounds get older, they move out of the field. Some would call it a “pipeline” problem. But I’m calling this a shortsighted pathway problem.

Despite numerous suggestions, I’m not entirely convinced this particular problem can be solved exclusively through mentoring. Mentoring comes with a powerful framework. Much like teacher/student, parent/child, supervisor/employee master/apprentice, etc. mentor/mentee implies a lot about who has the authority, privilege, power, access, and resources in the relationship. And gets more complicated when we’re talking about adults with kids of their own, bad knees, and aging parents.

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If there's a path toward progress that either needs to deepen or hasn't been made at all, I'm taking it.

I’m more convinced the lack of Black and Latinx designers in the later stages of the design trajectory is a retention, promotion, and compensation problem. There is still too much tokenism and assimilation happening at the C-suite level (that, unfortunately, some are too happy to participate in). With that, how can we foster a culture of peer growth in the design industry, one not premised on infantilization of grown people? Networking across is a solution.

Networking down or up is a form of mentoring. It requires one of these people perform a lot of labor to prove they are worthy of being mentored. But networking across is a whole other animal. And it isn’t as simple as, Hey, get me a job.

Recognizing and practicing peer-to-peer networking and networking across different design industries encourages many things. One, it assumes that anyone, from any background, should be your boss. Two, it establishes peers as intellectual equals, not subordinates. Three, it breaks down the assumption that only a handful of people from traditionally marginalized communities are good at being effective managers or insightful thought leaders.

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how can we foster a culture of peer growth in the design industry, one not premised on infantilization of grown people?

These practices require a lot of humility. And I take this responsibility upon myself as well. I invite people from my peer group to different design events. I work to build bridges with those who treat me as an equal (and I burn it down if they don’t). And If I am invited to attend an event, I do my best to show up. There’s always room for improvement.

It is often said in the graphic design industry that a design is really successful if it makes you jealous that you didn’t come up with the idea. We have to acknowledge how our competitive, envious natures, encouraged in the design industry, leave a peer hanging out to dry. Even worse if it’s a peer who looks like us.

We have to acknowledge that we have some power.

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Some would call it a pipeline problem. But I'm calling this a shortsighted pathway problem.

I recently saw a quote attributed to author Toni Morrison. In it, she says:

I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.’ 

If we want to deepen and lengthen design pathways for talented designers of traditionally marginalized communities, we should also say this to ourselves and to our professional design peers when we’re talking about one another.