Inclusive Illustration
“Creating illustrations has always been a crucial part of my career. However they often followed the same theme: Featuring similar images that lack representation. But that all changed in 2017 when I attended "An Event Apart", a design conference in Washington, DC that focuses on inclusive design. We often generate and evaluate ideas based on what we know. When we use only what we know as the base to create from, we exclude a lot of people. Inclusive design puts humans into the center from the start of the design process, and a diverse perspective is the key to true insight. Keeping all this in mind, I always start my design process by including and opening communication lines with people from excluded communities (designing "with" not "for") — to expand and to represent the people who make up our teams/community.”
Michelle Lana is a visual designer residing in Washington, DC.
