On Tuesday, March 14 from 2 PM – 12 AM at Native Bar & Café in Austin, Texas of community-building, learning together, and sharing authentic experiences at the “Beats+Bites+Backgrounds” networking experience hosted in partnership by the Diversity in Design (DID) Collaborative and _OFCOLOR. Attendees spent the day exploring design labs, listening to the stories and journeys of Black creatives, networking with peers, then jamming out to live music to close out the night. Take a look inside the experience here.

Creating a more equitable society will require designers to adopt anti-racist mindsets and facilitate the creation of anti-racist interventions. As part of DID’s Black History Month celebration, Justin Walker of ChiByDesign, a Chicago-based social and civil impact design firm, shared ChiByDesign’s approach to anti-racist design and how they’ve defined racism and anti-racism.

Watch the recording here. To join conversations like these and access additional information and programming in a collaborative community, apply to DID's Network here.

The situation: less than 5% of professional designers identify as Black. The experience of many Black creatives in the workplace can be isolating – they may be the only person of color on a team, department, or in some instances, within the entire company. Organizations, including corporations, agencies, and brands, cannot stop at just hiring diverse talent, but they must also change their policies and conditions to cultivate a thriving workforce inclusive of underrepresented groups. During this discussion with Oneita Porter of GM, Spencer Stultz of Adobe, Kelly Weldon of Adobe, as well as core DID members and Network participants, we focused on hiring practices, workforce relationships, interviews and portfolios, and supportive measures companies can instate for their diverse talent pool and employees. Watch the recording here.