Design & People Foundation supports individuals, institutions, and organizations dedicated to advocating for freedom of expression, safeguarding humanity, and protecting the natural environment.
MISSION STATEMENT
IN a world where people continuously cry for their rights and where diverse means are employed to save "their lost humanity," creativity manifests as energy to make the world better. This creative manifestation of energy has been utilised enormously by the "forgotten people" at different times in history to resist their horrific environments through art, music, dance, theater, and writing. Today, at a time when regimes emerge by crushing "others" to establish themselves as supreme powers, we at Design & People Foundation empathise with all those who struggle to safeguard humanity and their natural environment. Diverse conflicts has taught mankind how structures in the social environment can become repressive and destroy the innocence in social "productions" and "relationships." Discrimination has created factions among people, with some communities and groups being tagged as — marginalised, weak, underprivileged, and minority. Resistance is unavoidable in such social conditions.
Concerned individuals have used their talent as a tool of resistance in the face of oppression since the dawn of humanity. The process continues on and will never end since man is a 'thinking' being. Design & People occupy this area of 'resistance with creativity' — opening up a vast space for free dialogue that is needed globally in order to have broader perspectives on people's issues in the present context. Humanity grapples with diverse issues related to environment, gender, ethnicity, religion, communalism, linguistics, culture, politics, education, society, sex, racism, and many more. It is to voice all these issues that this space is opened. Design & People provide space for people to think, engage in dialogue, and act. We believe that through art, literature, music, and performance, people can gain a better understanding of the intricacies related to different issues they face. And therefore Design & People encourages people around the world to communicate, interact, and let free the flow of information from one part of the world to other parts, creating solidarity among oppressed people.
Our mission is to empower people all over the world to "design" their thinking and to grab the opportunity we give to voice their dissent and to live in solidarity with all those who are vulnerable. Design & People Foundation encourage and foster sensitivity toward others, as we are all connected and no man is an island. Therefore, we wipe out nonexistence and insensitivity, thus empowering us to speak to the whole world and to show them the issues we face and our perceptions of the fundamental realities of our nations. ⊠
+ Social Impact Projects of Design & People
Sethu Das: After graduating the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, Sethu Das went to Srinagar for an assignment and accidentally reached Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. And found his calling in life. Moved by the stories of Chinese atrocities in Tibet related to him by the former Tibetan political prisoners, he founded the Friends of Tibet, a pressure group in 1999 with one member — an organization he never registered!
In 2003, Sethu Das co-founded Design & People with the slogan — 'Design For People In Need'. Today Design & People is a network of designers and architects working toward social and humanitarian projects. In 2019, he formed the Friends of Tibet [Research] to conduct and publish research on the heritage, legacy, and history of Tibet in collaboration with scholars, academicians, sociologists, and holistic health educationists. Among other things, Sethu Das has the rare distinction of dropping out of the Industrial Design Centre of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, one of the premier institutes in India. He has held workshops on social and political design and has curated symposiums, which include — "Re-Designing the East: Political Design in Asia and Europe". Sethu Das has worked with The Economic Times, Netscribes, IIT Bombay, and the National Institute of Design (NID) as a Consultant and as a Resource Faculty. He has also served as an International Observer in Sri Lanka and in other conflict regions.
Sethu Das was mentored by his father Yesudasan, a political cartoonist from Kerala, and Richard Rosenkranz, a Pulitzer Prize nominee in history and a correspondent from the US Senate who later appointed him as the Director of the Florida-based World Tibet Day Foundation. He now devotes his time to various philanthropic initiatives of Friends of Tibet Foundation and and Design & People Foundation. From being a designer to starting socially-conscious movements, he is a man of varied tastes and talents. You won't, however, find him enjoying a bottle of Coca-Cola! ⊠
Suku Yesudasan is an architect by profession and a cartoonist by passion. Son of Yesudasan (1938-2021), legendary Indian political cartoonist, author, and scriptwriter, Suku is the co-founder of Design & People, a network of creative professionals working on social and political projects. He is also a Friends of Tibet Campaigner.
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OUR WORK AROUND THE WORLD
DESIGN & PEOPLE POSTERS
+ Architect & Interiors India (September 2009)
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