What Design Can Do is live-streaming three talks focusing on social justice in design in collaboration with VDF today. The first is with journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who will discuss challenging bias and misrepresentation in the news. Watch the talk from 11:00am UK time.

The Amsterdam-based design platform is presenting the live talk, titled Media Power, as a conversation between Kuwaiti-American journalist Shihab-Eldin and Richard van der Laken, creative director and co-founder of What Design Can Do (WDCD).

The talk is part of an initiative to have leading creatives discuss how to create a more sustainable, fair and inclusive world. Shihab-Eldin and van der Laken will explore what it means to be a media activist today, through subjects ranging from addressing newsroom diversity to confronting racial stereotypes on screen.

Shihab-Eldin, who writes for platforms including Vice, Al-Jazeera and The Huffington Post, will also draw from his own experience to discuss how people can better navigate the world of information and influence.

Previous initiatives by What Design Can Do include 13 campaigns against the sexual exploitation of underage children in the Netherlands, and a climate action challenge that led to designs such as a backpack radio station and a tower harvesting water from air.

About What Design Can Do

What Design Can Do believes that design and creativity can transform society. Its annual conferences in Amsterdam, Mexico City and Sāo Paulo are attended by designers and creatives, as well as businesses, NGO's and governments.

Previous speakers include Senegalese fashion designer Selly Raby Kane, MoMA curator Paola Antonelli and Google Lab’s creative director Robert Wong.

About VDF

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 10 July 2020. It brings the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

To find out what's coming up at VDF, check out the schedule. For more information or to join the mailing list, email [email protected].