Diversity In Design Collaborative Launches
“Design is an agent of positive change”
Herman Miller is moving to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive across their industry, company and communities. One of the many actions they are taking is the initial formation of the Diversity in Design (DID) Collaborative – a group of companies united by a common belief in the critical role that diversity plays in creating strong, impactful businesses and innovations.
DID members will design and implement programming aimed to increase opportunity at various points along the educational and employment pipeline, with a focus on teens, college-age design students, and emerging professionals.
Initially, the focus is on Black Designers in the USA. 12% of the US labour force identifies as Black, while less than 5% of designers employed on a full-time basis identify as Black. The average Black student enrollment at design colleges and universities in the US is less than 10%, and fewer than 10 of the 100+ HBCUs offer a design degree.
Given this critical gap, DID’s first central area of focus is to address this lack of representation of Black creatives in design. The primary goal is to increase design career opportunities for Black youth through the building of industry awareness, knowledge, and connections that will form an educational pipeline that leads to full-time employment.
It would be fantastic to see this initiative extend to the UK and for it to expand to address inclusion of the LGBT community. Herman Miller commented “This collective is just forming, and while a tight focus was necessary to begin to make sure we can set concrete goals and begin to enact real, measurable change, this is a group of companies committed to DEI at large in the long term, and our goals and actions will grow and develop as we do as a collective. “
