DESIGN AS A PLATFORM FOR DIPLOMACY: DESIGNMATTERS @

Throughout the international design community today, there is a growing consensus that designers have a key role to play in embracing a social agenda for engagement, action, and intervention in response to many of the global issues confronting humanity. These issues—over one billion people living on less than one dollar a day, urban grid-lock, depleting natural resources, disease and security threats, and looming environmental calamities, to name just a few—urgently demand fresh approaches, and especially the involvement of the creative community. Since its inception in 1930, Art Center College of Design has developed creative leaders who shape the form and function of our culture. Widely regarded as one of the premier schools of art and design in the world, the institution is a laboratory for innovation and a center of international dialogue in design, with a long tradition of real-world relevance in the practice and work of its faculty, students, and alumni. Now celebrating its 75th anniversary and a record of seminal achievements, Art Center remains on the cutting edge of design education and professional leadership. With each passing decade, the College has also become a vital advocate for design’s expanded range of responsibilities in a society of increasing interconnectedness and complexity. In the past few years in particular, this advocacy has directly affected the College’s educational strategies, imbuing them with a greatl