Learning remotely through diversity and social awareness

Covid-19 has brought unprecedented and unthinkable transformations that have drawn uncertainty across the world, in particular regarding the strategies that could most effectively help the global population undertake substantial behavioural changes. To reflect and generate a response to the societal flaws in safety procedures the pandemic has exposed politics, communications, logistics and global economies the Royal College of Art School of Design launched a Grand Challenge on Design for Safety which enquired the design capacity to draw behavioural propositions that leverage diversity, creativity and, generally, attitudes for addressing societal challenges proactively. This was explored by engaging a community of multidisciplinary and multicultural postgraduate designers, working remotely away from the studios, to think beyond solutions and imagine unthinkable ways to innovate. This diverse community of designers and thinkers became an asset for developing design strategies that, mirroring the initial hypothesis, generate knowledge for design to learn from the dramatic changes the world has experienced through the pandemic to inform more sustainable and equitable futures.