Design is/as War

‘Design is/as War’ is a publication in which Isabel Mager explores the destructive nature of design, a creation-obsessed sector, through an analogy to warfare, both in text and in graphics. It analyses power relations and how design has become entangled in and even used within these. But it also takes the warfare metaphor to reflect on alternatives: the destructiveness in creating something new every time, driven by consumerist incentives, can be turned around and used for more conscious and collaborative ways of creating. Isabel Mager’s research stakes out a position for design as a force between destruction and innovation – the very same position war holds as well.