How do we diversify the design industry?

Led by Herman Miller, 20 American design organisations are joining forces to level the playing field for under-represented communities. Their first step: enabling more Black youth to pursue careers in design. We take a first look at this ambitious initiative that promises to change our industry for the better

Of all the wake-up calls of 2020, the racial awakening that surged in the United States following the murder of George Floyd was unequivocally overdue. Rippling across the world, a wave of social media support prompted individual reckonings, a shared sense of urgency, and a general commitment to do better. But the question of how to achieve long-lasting change remained, for the most part, unanswered.

Racial imbalance, particularly the under-representation of the Black community in the American workforce, is staggering. According to statistics from the US Census Bureau, 12 per cent of the US labour force identify as Black, and less than five per cent of designers employed on a full-time basis identify as Black. This includes anyone who listed their profession as commercial and industrial designer, graphic designer, interior designer, landscape architect, urban planner, web designer, architect, or simply, designer.

To say that the racial inequality in the design industries needs to be corrected is an understatement. In June, the Herman Miller Group unveiled the Diversity in Design (DID) collaborative, an initiative pulling in 19 other American design