7 things every designer can learn from advocacy: “Color Carne” case study
How design can promote a safer digital environment thanks to advocacy methods.
“We were talking about clothing when Cristina said to me: “a flesh-colored bra would look good under that dress,”. But Giuditta Rossi and Cristina Maurelli’s flesh-color is not the same. “From there we realized that the definition of flesh-colored is no longer inclusive and in step with societal changes. And so we thought of a campaign that could twist the definition from pink to all the colors of humanity.”
Advocacy means giving a person or a group of people support to have their voice heard and help them understand and fight for their rights. Design can play an active part in advocacy projects, as design creates a digital space where we can challenge actual cultural norms and create a safer and more hopeful environment.
Color Carne is an Italian advocacy project from Bold Stories that wants to “change the color of flesh-colored”. In Italy, even the main dictionaries say that “Color Carne” (“flesh-colored”) is “a pale pink color, similar to that of human flesh”. This seemingly innocuous term assumes, often unconsciously, that a white person’s skin is the norm.
Color Carne aims to be a demonstration of how concepts that seem inoffensive, particularly in language and visual representations, can instead hide bias, prejudice, and discrimination.
Here are 7 lessons I learnt as a designer by studying Color Carne project:
- Speak up, don’t speak for
- Inclusion is a win-win strategy
- Storytelling moves people more than you think
- Do your homework, but adapt your story to your audience(s)
- No great thing is made alone
- Showcase your solution, don’t be part of the problem
- Yes you can: be a self-starter
1/7: Speak up, don’t speak for
Advocacy: Giuditta and Cristina work together on this project. But Giuditta is dark-skinned, and Cristina is light-skinned. When I asked Cristina if she ever felt out of place when talking about racism, she answered me:
“Racism is everyone’s problem and it was created by white people. We are not as good as we may think we are: you may have visual and linguistic biases that affect you even if you consider yourself an anti-racist. I was the one suggesting Giuditta to buy a flesh-colored bra — my words were innocuous and dangerous at the same time.” — Cristina Maurelli, brand storyteller at Bold Stories
Design: You have the right person to speak up, even if you are not involved directly in the battle you’re fighting for. You can speak about feminism and being a man, and you can speak about systemic racism and being white. On one hand, being part of a community does not make you an expert; on the other hand, not being part of a community means you should listen even more to concerned people, do research and ask for expert advice.
2/7: Inclusion is a win-win strategy
Advocacy: When you fight for the well-being of an underrepresented group, there are no losers. Advocacy groups help people realize we are not at the same starting point, and help people with less privilege to catch up. Moreover, an inclusive project can be beneficial also for people we didn’t think about in the first place: for example, afro hair products are great to hydrate all curl types — not necessarily only afro ones.
Design: In design, inclusive products should be the standard. In the beauty industry, the launch of the Fenty Beauty brand has proved the importance of inclusive products. Underrepresented women and cultures were in an international beauty campaign and the light-skinned tone was just one out of 50 skin tones available — not the “standard” one.
“Our approach to inclusive marketing has always been to use facts rather than long words. We’ve never even used the word “inclusive” in our messages.” — Sandy Saputo — Marketing Director of Kendo Brands, including Fenty Beauty (source)
3/7: Storytelling moves people more than you think
Advocacy: Color Carne has become an internet sensation because Giuditta and Cristina worked throughout their project identity to tell a story by sharing positive feelings and images thanks to storytelling thinking.
"Working on identity becomes a way to then tell about oneself and to get people on board. Through storytelling, we start conversations and we create stories. Positive emotions can create much stronger bonds than negative emotions, and it is easier to engage if the story resonates with you."— Giuditta Rossi, brand strategist at Bold Stories
Design: Even in the preliminary stages, design must become a storytelling area. Communicating about our decisions or documenting them throughout should be essential and mandatory to engage our stakeholders and community. Moreover, it means that the next person in charge will have a clear proof of why we decided to take a path rather than another.
4/7: Do your homework, but adapt your story to your audience(s)
Advocacy: Advocacy groups clearly adapt their story according to whom the project is being told. When browsing the Color Carne website, you see a lot of bright smiles, positive statements, emojis and carousels. Be careful: you may fall into the Cristina and Giuditta trap. A distracted visitor can learn about it in 5 seconds during a Tiktok, but an expert can deep dive into it for days before understanding all its gears.
"Distinguish to whom the project is being told. For the end user, it is essential that the process is clear and limpid. They don’t need to know everything beforehand."-Cristina Maurelli, brand stotyteller at Bold Stories
Design: As a designer, you know that’s a lot of work behind the slightest change or decision. Make it easier for people to understand your decisions by “hiding” the work behind, and then showcase your whole decision making process only to those who asked for it. The final users don’t need nor want to know everything beforehand: they just want a useful product tailored to them. Still, if designers want to discuss a project with stakeholders and peers, then they can tell the project story from A to Z.
5/7: No great thing is made alone
Advocacy: Color Carne can become a meeting point for people who want to build a society that enhances diversity and where everyone can recognize themselves. Moreover, they opened the topic to other industries, such as plasters, lingerie, make-up, ballet shoes and crayons. They wanted people to have concrete examples in mind when presenting this topic.
"We want to turn Color Carne into a platform for inspiration or open knowledge and innovation where people can easily find what has been done in the industries. It should be a space where people can share their knowledge". — Giuditta Rossi, brand strategist at Bold Stories
Design: If every designer became an expert in an inclusion topic and shared their insights and research, other companies may take advantage of it and show their support. Inclusive design needs a lot of research, processes, design and strategy to take it from the first and last touchpoint. For example, creating inclusive lingerie or inclusive plasters may be a whole new journey even for market leaders, as pain points and difficulties may be different.
6/7: Showcase your solution, don’t be part of the problem
Advocacy: Color Carne had 0 media budget or sponsorship. But it’s all over the internet and it changed Google images results.
Design: In design, replacing your current practices may not even have an additional cost. When creating illustrations or picking ones from the internet, it doesn’t cost more to choose X image over Y to make it more inclusive. Very often it’s just a matter of awareness. Before making a lack of budget your excuse, ask developers, product ops and your peers the actual cost of the operation and prioritize your actions. What if it’s not a big deal to change direction?
7/7: Yes you can: be a self starter
Advocacy: Color carne is the proof that 2 individuals can start a whole revolution. Any one of us can help bring about change. In dealing with issues like this, there’s often a tendency to downplay them and ignore them. But it is precisely by modifying these false certainties that we can change things.
Design: designers should be accountable for their own decisions , as they create daily interactions in digital spaces to be used by people online. As Sara Watcher-Boettcher says:
“Every form field, every default setting, every push notification, affects people. Every detail can add to the culture we want — can make people a little safer, a little calmer, a little more hopeful.” — Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech , Sara Wachter-Boettcher, 2018
Conclusions
Color Carne taught me that anyone can foster change, starting in their own sector. As designers, we should be aware of our responsibility and be an active part of the change we want to see in tomorrow’s world. Designers are able to create inclusive products, services and experiences in which people can truly feel represented.
"Design alone isn't going to close all of these gaps. Yet designers, engineers and business leaders can make progress toward equality with every design decision they make." - Mismatch: how inclusion shapes design, Kat Holmes, 2018
This article is not about pointing fingers: I am aware of the complexity of the design industry, but I know for sure that designers want to create products they’re proud of. But time, money and interest can be barriers to inclusive products.
Make-up and video games have started down the road to more inclusive products, when will it be the turn of digital product design?
Thanks a lot to Giuditta Rossi and Cristina Maurelli for their time and support in helping me writing this article. Check out their Color carne website and/or contact them at “press@colorcarne.it” to learn more about their project.
Sources in English
- Website “https://colorcarne.it/eng/”
- Website “https://boldstories.it/home_bold_eng/”
- Book “Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech”, Sara Wachter-Boettcher, 2018
- Book “Mismatch: how inclusion shapes design”, Kat Holmes, 2018
- Book “Invisible Women”, Caroline Criado Perez, 2019
- Article “The Language of Anti-Racism”, Sydney Worth, 2020
Sources in French
- Article “Avec Fenty Beauty, Rihanna éveille les consciences sur la beauté pour toutes”, Sandy Saputo, 2019
- Interview “Interview : Rokhaya Diallo revient sur le “sparadrap gate” et le racisme ordinaire”, Amadine Liard, 2020
Sources in Italian
- Website “https://colorcarne.it”
- Website “https://boldstories.it”
