Director’s Letter
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From The Desk of Jason E.C. Wright, BRS
Burntsienna Research Society
17 August, 2018
It all started with an observation :
We often ‘research’ reflexively: asking our peers, the first page of a cursory web search, scrolling our newsfeeds until we find ourselves distracted. We also tend to stop at whatever fits our present worldview and amenities - the preferences of our immediate peers, the aesthetics of our mood boards, the reinforced feed of our social channels, or the UI of the latest mobile device.
This leaves out so many other realities, histories, and vantage points to be considered. And there is so much more to be considered.
We see the adverse effects of this everyday: the fashion brand backpeddling from ‘accidental’ cultural insensitivity or appropriation, the NGO who’s copy was regionally offensive, the UX/UI designer who initially made everything to iPhone spec, even though their global demographic is 70% non-iphone interface users.
These ethnocentricity’s reveal what voices are not in the room; they reveal our own intellectual laziness, going with what’s convenient over pursuing what’s critical to be considered.
But with applied critical thought, expanding our search parameters by learning better questions to ask, exploring deeper cultural perspectives, and cracking open design and artbook volumes as indispensable reference points for archiving and visual communication, we can think better. Build better. Be, better.
More considerate. More responsible. With greater stories to tell, but being better stewards of the stories and processes that have already been told. By learning how to think critically, critique our own industries, our own projects, our own habits, maybe we can actually design a future that genuinely enriches and elevates our collective experience.
If this is what you subscribe to as well, then you’ve arrived to a home for such.
Welcome to Burntsienna Research Society. We warmly welcome you in.
Jason E.C. Wright
Founder, Director
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