Decolonizing Design

A guidebook to the institutional transformation of design theory and practice by restoring the long-excluded cultures of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities.

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.

For leaders and practitioners in design institutions and communities, Dori Tunstall’s work demonstrates how we can transform the way we imagine and remake the world, replacing pain and repression with equity, inclusion, and diversity—in short, she shows us how to realize the infinite possibilities that decolonized design represents.

Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall is an award-winning design anthropologist, educator, author, and strategic consultant through her firm, Dori Tunstall, Inc. At OCAD University, she was the first Black person in the world to hold the position of dean of a faculty of design. Her writing has been featured in Fast Company, Print, Aperture, and other publications. She has keynoted at the MoMA, Nike, Cooper Hewitt National Smithsonian Design Museum, and over 150 events on six continents.