Diversity in the design industry is more than just a box-ticking exercise — it’s essential for business success, writes Zone’s Fatma Al Mansoury…
Moving to London five years ago to study design, I was blown away by the beautiful collision of cultures from every corner of the globe. I saw people who looked like me, and I saw people who looked nothing like me. It was brilliant. Just a few months in and my mind was set: I was not leaving. I belonged here amongst this mixture of nationalities, values and beliefs.
But once I’d graduated and entered the design industry, I was devastated to learn that it does not reflect the streets outside. It does not represent the people. It does not even represent the diversity you find at design schools. So where are they all going?
The Design Economy report, compiled by the Design Council in 2018, shows that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups are least likely to hold senior roles within the creative industries. They make up just 12% of all design-related managers in the UK. And I imagine that an even smaller percentage of these roles will be filled by BAME women.
It was with this bleak statistic in mind that I attended D&AD Festival a few weeks ago, where I hoped to hear respected creatives cover the topic of diversity and inclusivity. Race, disability, sexuality, age and gender diversity are terms that have often been thrown around as either ‘the right thing to do’ or marketing gimmicks. But what do the senior creatives really think of it?
I was inspired to hear Rey Andrade, creative director at Amsterdam-based agency 72andSunny, speak about how more diverse people and languages broaden the scope of input. They provide more texture, more music, more references, more stories to share and, ultimately, more for a creative to draw from. As he put it: “If you are a painter, more colour is good, right?”
Andrade also referenced infamous cases — like the “Coolest monkey in the jungle” H&M jumper modelled on a black child and the Pepsi ad that suggested racially motivated police brutality could be stopped by offering the cops a fizzy drink — to illustrate that diversity and inclusion is more than just a moral requirement — it’s plain common sense. Would these campaigns have been signed off if there had been wider ethnic representation in the room?
And of course you have the other end of the spectrum, where inclusivity is used as a marketing gimmick. Earlier this year Oh Polly, a popular millennial/gen Z retailer that grew out of social media, launched an ‘inclusive’ Instagram campaign. A secondary Instagram account was created called Oh Polly Inclusive, which only featured posts of ethnically diverse and plus-size women. But all the while the same signature aesthetic was retained for its main Instagram account, where skinny, tall, white models were used exclusively. Needless to say, this did not go down well with the online community and all traces of the campaign have since been deleted.
I think the industry needs to understand that diversity is not a ‘moral’ issue. You’re not doing minorities a favour by hiring them — you are investing in more successful work by ensuring that the people who create your brand messages understand the people who will be consuming them. Diversity is just a smart business decision.
So where are the people? Let’s start investing in potential, rather than looking for the perfect CV. Let’s encourage strong mentorship to build solid foundations for the next generation. Let’s open up to the possibility of having conversations with people we wouldn’t normally have conversations with. Only then will the design industry truly reflect the diversity I see on the streets outside.
