Creative labor in crisis
On design workers and corporate greed
As I write these words, I sit in an old house in Thessaloniki, Greece. During the day the temperature has been up to 40 degrees Celcius for 12 consecutive days, a sustained scolding heatwave that even people who have grown old in the country have described as unbearable. In that new planetary reality, for reasons unknown, I am thinking and ranting about design instead of drinking cold drinks and enjoying my home city. Some might say I am stuck… Nevertheless, am I alone here in this reflection?
I feel strongly about the state of design today because for me design always has been more than just a job. The state of design today does not need any survey to help you arrive at a bleak realization, especially if you have been discussing with other designers. Design has always been a microcosm of society, specifically in the imperial core, or what everyone else would probably name “the West”. And so today’s creative labor crisis mirrors much of what happens in the world: divisive and polarized politics, extractive capitalism on a rampage, the ignorance of business-as-usual towards the climate emergency, and the craze of AI sweeping everyone off their feet without consideration for these interconnected issues. Our crisis is indeed part of the polycrisis.
Creative tool corporations, “too big to fail”, sit at the forefront of the crisis. They promise efficiency above all to their customers. But there’s one caveat; Designers think they are, but they are not the customers. Designers do not own budgets to be considered customers. Designers are users, indirect end-user personas. With this in mind, the real customers of those companies are paying top dollar to the creative tool companies to craft shiny new AI strategies catering to business-as-usual needs: do more with less. Fewer resources, fewer designers, more output. This is what those real customers want, what competitors strive to do, and what stakeholders need to hear to stay calm. Efficiency and profit trump all other considerations, including ecological and social well-being.
The design community does not understand or does not want to wake up to the realization that a capitalistic corporation will not provide the tools they genuinely need. This might have been true once when companies like Figma were smaller and hip and relied on designers' goodwill. Now, about every other creative tool is driven by OKRs, QBRs, and other acronym-ridden corporate metrics. End-user concerns rank very low on their priority list. The crisis in creative labor is not an unfortunate mistake or a mere economic circumstance we must endure until better days come. It is the system functioning as intended (also known as POSIWID).
Look at the design communities once sustaining and fostering design thought. Once large and prestigious, nurturing designers into leaders, they are now also in crisis and slowly dying. A striking example is IXDA dissolving its global entity, unable to pay the large amounts of debt it accumulated, shutting down its iconic conferences, and other programs. On top of these corpses prestigious conferences like Config are now run and controlled by corporations. This trend started during COVID when companies realized that it’s more beneficial and profitable to create events themselves rather than sponsor communities. This new reality is creating the illusion of community while serving corporate agendas. A genuine community is not part of a corporation’s plan. Never was, never will be. After a few long years filled with social distancing, figuring out remote work, and generally really bad online events, as design community we took whatever was thrown to us since we were all thirsty to find any sort of community, connection, or network.
This is inextricably tied to the fact that most designers are stuck as workers inside exploitative workplaces, treated as productive machines. These workplaces, capitalizing on such creative tools that promise efficiency gains, offer designers no skin in the game. This kind of design, akin to factory lines, turns the designer into a productive resource. Devoid of meaningful thought (I will not say design thinking) they need to spew designs at the speed of whatever metric their employer will figure out to optimize their work. Due to massive layoffs and a saturated market full of job seekers being unemployed for long periods, these conditions gave leeway to companies to exploit employment even further and push back on “user-centeredness” or any other type of design that didn’t fit business objectives of growth and profit maximization. And it was (maybe still is) “take it or leave it”.
This type of design starkly contrasts with *good* design, which - in my view - should be ethical, planet-centric, and holistic*. The design discipline today mirrors the broader historical pattern where technological advancements drive systems of extraction in the name of growth, seeking to maximize output while minimizing costs, often at the expense of workers' autonomy and creativity.
Having been at the forefront of community for a while, I have witnessed both its glory days and darkest moments. If people supported community efforts as fervently as they purchased corporate conference tickets, our community would be strong enough to pressure said corporations. If community alternatives were seen as viable contenders, we would have different conversations about what designers need from their tools and how (and why) tools use designers’ labor for profit. We would focus on building and sustaining genuine communities rather than further entrenching corporate dominance in our profession.
We need more community-led efforts — conferences, resources, publications, online courses, and above all, tools that prioritize collective well-being over maximizing corporate profit. Ideally, designers should support these community efforts with their time, money (if possible), and networking. While corporate tools may be necessary for the 9-to-5 job, designers should seek freedom from extractive tools that exploit their labor beyond their jobs.
* Holistic design is centered on the needs and values of humans in relation to the larger ecology that humans are part of, recognizing that human well-being is inextricably linked to the health of the planet. This means that holistic design seeks to balance the needs of humans, the environment, and other living beings, in a way that ensures that everyone can thrive. Holistic design also involves considering the full lifecycle of a product, service, or system, from its extraction and production to its disposal.
(Definition by me…)