Critical.Design

The brilliant will be joining us on 19.03 at 6pm CET for a guest talk that will take us on a journey from Queering AI to digital twins and co-predictive relations. Grace draws together experience as an academic researcher, a teacher and a designer-strategist. Members of our Thinking Collection and courses can join live to join the conversation or watch back later. 💙

Congratulations to and on their new book release.

Our founder has contributed with a chapter on his “New Kind of Design”

These kind of design texts and collections of new thinking our essential for our world and for design practitioners as we tackle the catastrophic challenges that are here and ahead of us.

Our Masterclass in Semiotics for Future Impact is running again in April. We have a few early bird spots left! Lovely words from a previous participant: “The semiotics masterclass was so enjoyable, it felt like a treat to my weary freelance self. I gained practical insights and frameworks for applying cultural analysis within my existing work, but more importantly, I left inspired about how I might use these learnings to shape a new career direction. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to re-energise their thinking around cultural analysis. It certainly gave me a new sense of enthusiasm and excitement for what I do. Thank you so very much Gemma and Al!”

27th November - join us for a conversation and micro-workshop with design strategists and entrepreneurs, Komal Pahwa and Vidya Sarangapani, as they introduce their novel Diasporic Design Framework.

Komal and Vidya will introduce the Diasporic Design Framework, discussing how culture-sensitive design principles served as a foundation for its creation. This session offers the opportunity to engage with the framework directly, showcasing meaningful and practical ways for applying culture-sensitive principles to solve complex, systemic problems effectively.

Lovely to be guest facilitating a session on envisioning futures for organisations at today! We envisioned our preferred futures for Amsterdam and then how the city council would have to look in 2045 to make these a reality. Protopian thinking, hopeful signals and co-envisioning together.

Extracts from REBELLION - the first book from School of Critical Design. Responses to our “very human prompt” drew us into landscapes, terrain, places. .studio Collect and support over at Metalabel!

Extracts from our founders and fellows’ pieces in the first edition of our series of Very-Human-Prompts - REBELLION A prompt that asks us to reframe, re engage and reimagine. Time, our attention, our places, our bodies Limited release available on now!

“Quiet Resistance” is the first chapter in issue 1 of our series of Very-Human-Prompts: Rebellion. The range of responses to this prompt were beautifully varied and reflective. Here’s a glimpse of work from Laura Bryan and Gemma Jones. Available as a limited release on

Our first ever publication in collaboration with our friends at is out! The first in a series of “very-human-prompts” REBELLION! Available now on

Our cofounder Gemma is running her Masterclass: Semiotics for Future Impact in December. Early bird rates are still available - email Gemma for more info!

We loved Gemma Jones sharing her current top of mind signals at in central London this morning. A wonderful collection of speakers and a super cool group of people in the room. Thank you for the great vibe and views!