The #DIDCollaborative is a group of companies that recognize that diversity is our greatest creative advantage and are coming together to foster systemic change in increasing diversity in design across disciplines. The DID Collaborative is united by a belief in design’s power to enact positive change and the role of diversity in creating strong businesses. DID members will illuminate design career paths for underrepresented high school and college-aged students and create bridges to eventual employment opportunities.
Initiated by MillerKnoll in June 2021, DID is a group of companies united by a common belief in the critical role that diversity plays in creating strong, impactful businesses and innovations. DID has come together with a shared purpose to create and foster systemic change in increasing diversity in design across fields, with the understanding that such change requires commitment, strategic action, and financial support.
Let's make design an easier career choice for more people. “Young people can’t be what they can't see, and the design industry is not the most visible industry when you are not in it,” said Christion Banks, Chief Strategy Officer at The Ronin, a member company of DID. “Our journey started because we were around young people who had aspirations of being creatives but had nowhere to go,” added Alex Vega, CEO of The Ronin.
All DID members make a leadership-level commitment to take concrete action to diversify design disciplines both inside and outside their business walls. In partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), education programs, and nonprofits, DID connects organizations to share ideas, pool resources, and collaborate to improve diversity in design and create employment opportunities for Black designers.
The Collaborative organizes team work primarily through three committees (Awareness & Activation, College Programs & Education, Recruitment & Retention), that bring focus to strategies for change that will be the core of a 2022 year of action to launch with a Teen Design Fair in Detroit on March 18, 2022.
New members of DID include 3M Company, 50,000feet, Airbnb, Ammunition, ASH NYC, Carrier Digital, Corgan, Emotive Brand, GERTRUDE, INC., HNI Corporation (HBF, Allsteel, HON), Johnson & Johnson Design, level, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Rightpoint, SOUR, and The Ronin. Founding members include 2X4, Adobe, Architecture + Information, Aruliden, Camron, Civilization, COLLINS, Dropbox, Fossil Group, The Freeman Company, fuseproject, Gap Inc., Levi Strauss & Co., MillerKnoll, Pentagram, Stamen Design, Studio O+A, Wolff Olins, and Work & Co.
Article source: https://news.hermanmiller.com/Diversity-in-Design-Collaborative-Welcomes-New-Member-Companies
