Design is often considered a luxury, yet the reality is that nothing can be manufactured without first being designed. It can be as simple as an envelope or pencil, or as complex as a car or space rocket.

While some designers such as Charles Eames, Milton Glaser and Zaha Hadid have become household names, the vast majority of products we use every day are anonymously designed, down to the shape, colour and location of the tiniest screw on a laptop. No one knows the name of the first craftsperson who designed the stucco Muqarnas of Nishapur, Iran, in the 9th century — a style that spread across the Islamic world, or the very first woven paradise carpets or illuminated Qurans.

Design is the purposeful fashioning of something, usually products, architecture or graphic design. It is also the design of systems, from the structure of how a bank functions, education systems, government structures or the design of roads to manage traffic flow. At a more subtle level lies the design of policies that dictate the values of a society, spreading across borders, through media, entertainment, literature, history writing and even fashion styles. What is newsworthy, what is funny, what is chic and what gauche, who are the heroes and who the villains, is the result of perception management by a number of economic, political or religious forces.

Design of systems can have a dark side. Shadowy private firms are engaged to influence elections or markets, through sabotage, hacking or spreading disinformation. Intelligence agencies plan elaborate subterfuge to infiltrate and manipulate events. Conspiracy theories, a term first used in the late 19th century, abound with hidden sinister aims, from the New World Order to genetic alterations via Covid vaccinations.

The design of spaces, systems and societies is far more carefully curated that most people may realise

Most of the time, society unthinkingly adapts to whatever is on offer. Concepts of urban planning were enthusiastically implemented and then questioned for their negative impact. Once building dams was the way forward, now many are being dismantled. Countries were encouraged to industrialise, and now its impact on the environment is at the forefront. Tablets are freely distributed to children to encourage e-learning, but recently Australia banned social media for children under the age of 16.

A 1941 cartoon by Peter Arno in The New Yorker featured an engineer walking away from a plane crash with the caption “Well, back to the old drawing board.” The term was quickly picked up and is widely used when a project or a policy fails, requiring a fundamental rethink. While “back to square one” has a sense of despair, “back to the drawing board” carries a sense of determination to find a solution.

The term became reflective of post-War USA foreign policy under President Harry Truman, fired up to reconfigure the world to suit US interests. This included the creation of political blocs, the CIA and the ‘with us or against us’ narrative. Julian Huxley shaped Unesco’s foundational philosophy of international collaboration in education, science and culture to create a “world civilisation” to counter nationalism. Mao Zedong radically changed the structure of China, the world’s most populous nation in 1948.

These were all in the nature of giant experiments with constant design adjustment, as policies sometimes failed to achieve intended aims. The post-WWII world was first divided into developed and underdeveloped nations, then first, second or third world, then replaced with the less judgemental North or South description, which also makes little geographical sense.

Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley recently protested: “We are not an experiment, a testing ground for others’ ideas.” Administrative systems that evolved over time in the empires of China, India or the Middle East were displaced by European models, once alien and now adopted in the interest of global connectivity.

While people need structure and a set of values for the smooth functioning of societies, the complexity of societies today makes it difficult to design these through consensus. Dominant political and economic forces are, instead, allowed to determine the narratives.

Human resources consultant Jason Teoh writes that far too many face “exclusion by design” as spaces and systems keep leaving people out. He argues that there needs to be “a fundamental shift in who we centre when we build policies, tools, spaces and services.”

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist.
She may be reached at
durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 21st, 2025