Designing In The Margins

Good design pushes boundaries, but too often our systems pull it back toward the centre. Algorithms, optimisation, centralised control — creativity risks being flattened by what’s familiar. So where do we look for inspiration in our creative work? Where do we find the unexpected, the delightful, the human?

This talk invites us to shift our gaze from the centre to the margins: the places where people live and create outside our dominant systems. Zenaida shares how these edges can be sites of imagination, insight and creative possibility. Drawing on her work as a collaborative designer with social justice movements in Aotearoa New Zealand, this talk is a call to rethink where design begins, who it serves, and how it can shift power — not just reflect it.