Designers Will Lead the Recovery

Issue 016

Author

Robert Vidaure
October 13, 2025

Over the summer, I took time to reconsider the purpose of this newsletter and the role designers can realistically play in shaping public life. I began The Civic Designer to encourage creative professionals to bring care, clarity, and accessibility to government services and initiatives. That mission has not changed, but the landscape has.

At the federal level, design as a public good has been sidelined. Programs that once served millions through thoughtful, human-centered work have been stripped down or dissolved altogether. What remains often feels performative, designed to protect institutions rather than serve people. I cannot, in good conscience, encourage designers to seek opportunities in the United States federal government at this time.

That said, meaningful work continues elsewhere. City and state governments, along with public media and community organizations, still need designers who understand the value of trust, transparency, and service. The budgets may be small, but the impact is immense. The recovery of our civic imagination will not come from the top; it will come from those still willing to build at the local level.

–Robert  🤝

ARTICLES

Road to Resilience

Placemaking US posted an update in late August 2025 highlighting a nationwide activation called “Road to Resilience,” focusing on economic preparedness and community resilience through placemaking.

‘The ultimate design by committee’: How Pentagram crafted Austin’s new logo

Pentagram designed Austin’s new logo. It’s sparking debate on social media. The branding, revealed at a press conference on September 4, includes an official logo for the city, a wordmark, and a set of guidelines for how Austin’s government will show up online. It was designed through a partnership between the Austin-based agency TKO, which handled an extensive preliminary interview process, and the Austin branch of the design firm Pentagram, which led the actual brand design. 

POV: Where has the money gone?

DEI rollbacks have been a persistent and worrying backdrop to 2025. The co-founders of Where Are The Black Designers? reveal how funding cuts postponed their largest project to date, and the bleak picture this paints for the creative industry today.

BOOKS

Deepening Community: Finding Joy Together in Chaotic Time
by Paul Born

Community shapes our identity, quenches our thirst for belonging, and bolsters our physical, mental, emotional, and economic health. But in the chaos of modern life, community ties have become unraveled, leaving many feeling afraid or alone in the crowd, grasping at shallow substitutes for true community.

Decolonizing Design
by Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall

From the excesses of world expositions to myths of better living through technology, modernist design, in its European-based guises, has excluded and oppressed the very people whose lands and lives it reshaped. Decolonizing Design first asks how modernist design has encompassed and advanced the harmful project of colonization—then shows how design might address these harms by recentering its theory and practice in global Indigenous cultures and histories.

PROJECTS

Zohran Mamdani's Campaign Branding

It’s rare that I see a political campaign that breaks the mold like Obama’s 2008 campaign did. But Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral campaign did just that. It breaks tradition by using bold, saturated colors and typography meant to mimic hand-painted signage on neighborhood storefronts. It’s a testament that new ideas in the political branding space are not only celebrated but also reflect the candidate and the community they are dedicated to serving.  

Skovbrynet Basecamp

Skovbrynet Basecamp, a Danish housing project with a lush, park-like landscape, featuring a public path that winds up the six-storey building to a rooftop of tall grasses, trees and private terraces. The soft, organic design of the trails – both around and atop the building – preserves the area’s green character while inviting movement, connection and quiet moments with nature.

Art Song Chicago

In celebration of its 15th anniversary this year, CAIC (Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago) embarked on a new chapter with a new name: Art Song Chicago, and needed a brand that could live up to it. A vital yet underrepresented medium, the genre of “art song” pairs vocals with piano to give poetry new life through music — a home for words, emotion, and reflection. Franklyn Design built an identity that honors the organization’s rich history while celebrating its future.

RESOURCES

Placemaking Guidelines

The World Bank’s Making Thriving Cities Through Place-Led Development is a practical guide to creating vibrant, inclusive urban spaces through community-driven design. Drawing on examples from Europe and beyond, it shows how local engagement, small-scale projects, and collaborative planning can transform public spaces into thriving, people-centered places that foster connection, opportunity, and long-term urban vitality.

The Atlas of Economic Complexity

The Atlas of Economic Complexity, developed by Harvard’s Growth Lab, is a pretty fascinating interactive tool that visualises global trade data to assess a country’s economic complexity and output. Really interesting to see what certain countries export and import, and how that has changed over time.

Contra — A professional network for the jobs and skills of the future

Connect with next-gen talent and tools to get work underway. Hire more independents. Start more projects. Get more creative.

The Civic Designer is a newsletter dedicated to exploring the impact of Civic Design. It is a collection of curated stories and resources designed to inspire and educate designers and public sector communicators who are passionate about shaping the public sphere and empowering our communities.

Reply

or to participate.