Diversity in Design and Advertising
Why does Design and Advertising lack diversity? Why is it that I am pretty much always, if not one out of a handful, the only coloured individuals in any studio or agency I work in. Where are all the women, and why is this industry so male driven?
It’s something I noticed 3 years ago when I got into Design and Advertising. I have kept quiet about it for a fair bit of time, but recent events have sadly lead me to question how others in society view me, as a brown skin male. I was at a design talk the other day with my business partner and buddy Paul Stayt, when he and I both realised that I was one of two coloured people in the room, full of maybe 75 designers. Therefore I thought, let me do some research into this and was surprised to find a fair bit of information and past studies.
And just as a precursor, no.. I am not a white hating racist constantly saying.. “Is it because I am brown?!” Then again I do feel like saying that at times as I am heavily scrutinised and stopped whenever going through any airport for security. Yes I am Indian, but that only makes me notice this issue more than most others would. When you are the minority and have had to deal with prejudices your whole life, you can’t help constantly feeling people judge you because of your skin colour and peoples generalisation of grouping us all into one circle of negativity.
I’d like to think of myself as a somewhat confident individual who can go into any environment and be social. Yet whenever I go into an agency, when I am the only coloured one, it’s hard to not feel a little singled out. I have made jokes about it myself, probably to avoid the awkwardness, that I am the “token ethnic” wherever I go. I know for sure that the Design field can be very diverse as when I was studying at University, we had a very mixed group of students from all over the world, from different backgrounds and cultures. My University seemed to actually have a lot more women over men studying as well. Yet, the industry itself lacks this beautiful diversity heavily, and I can’t help but feeling this happens at the hiring stage. But let me hit you with some figures before we get into that.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/creative-industries-2016-focus-on
I managed to go onto the UK official Government website to grab some information from The Creative Industries Statistics. You can clearly see the comparison of White creatives employed having a 80 to 90 percent coverage compared to BAME ( British. Black, Asian, and minority ethnic) This is crazy to believe considering we are meant to be living in a multicultural Britain, or at least what most of us hope to think.
— “Is Graphic Design too white?”
I also found tons of articles from places such as Design Week, Creative Review, AIGA and many more talking about if Graphic Design in particular is too white. Heres’ a little chart from Design Week after pulling together statistics from their 2016 careers and salary survey.
Source: https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/25-31-january-2016/what-does-the-design-industry-look-like/
“We are sometimes unconsciously biased to people we are used to being around”
As we now know, it’s a very white male dominated industry, like pretty much most professions in the western world. But that isn’t to say they are all racist, women objectifying, just because they are white and men. Oh and just to remind people, you can be from a ethnic minority and be a racist, the same way you can be a women and a sexist towards men, it’s a two way street but more so is the case the other way round. However, I feel there is something to be said about being unconsciously biased. And this could fall into the hiring stage I spoke about earlier. We tend to be biased to the people we are used to being around. Such as if you are brought up in a white family, with white friends, and white neighbours, you are going to be biased about having stronger relationships with them for that is all you know. That could be said for people from ethnic minorities as well. I find a lot of Indian/Pakistani Asian people tend to form stronger communities with those of their own. It’s down to simply knowing only those who have grown up around them and feeling secure and safe with them which is important to us all. This also relates to the Group Identity Theory, also known as Social Identity which states that people can show favouritism to those they identify as being in their existing social environment.
I know myself, from knowledge and personal experience that having a foreign name can half your chances of getting a job. Heck I did it myself by shortening down my name from Hashmukh to Hash. It was a mixture of getting tired of people getting it wrong and knowing it would help me find work. Here’s some information I found out about trying to get hired with a foreign name.
Researchers from the Paris School of Economics and Stanford University sent out fake resumes to apply for real jobs in Paris. All six resumes detailed identical work experience. The only differentiator was language skills on two of the resumes.
The two French-sounding names received 70% more callbacks than the other four names — two of North African origin, and two that sounded foreign, but were hard to place.
Now isn’t this just bullshit. Like really? Because the sound of your fucking name. For me that is why I hate resumes. They allow the employer to paint their own picture of you based on details that should not really concern them sometimes. I’d like to think I have personally not had to deal with this because I am a freelancer. All my clients to do not have time to trawl through resumes and fine details of someone, rather just need to simply see the work I produce and get me in based on that.
Back to the unconsciously being biased case, I have largely noticed there is a real ‘Lad’ culture in the UK, and it can all seem very cliquey. If you are a creative working in London, you are lying through your teeth if you do not notice this in any agency big or small. This probably results in the lack of female representation in Design and Advertising as well.
“WE ALL NEED TO BE THE FUCKING POWER RANGERS”
I want to bring forward a much more diverse working culture in this industry. “Diversity is Variation” which is the key to all things creative right? Therefore bringing people together from different backgrounds, people from all over the world whom all have a variety of learning and experiences, it can only strengthen the range of work we produce. My favourite way to look at it is, imagine we are all the POWER RANGERS! There is a Blue, Black, Pink, Yellow, Green, and White Power Ranger. Oh and not to mention, there are women Power Rangers too, this team is diverse as shit! They can all work individually to take care of the task at hand, but form as a team to join forces and take on the big nemesis of that episode, in our case that beefy client project we have been slaving over for months.
The solution?
I don’t think ethnic minorities should be hired to make a company feel more diverse. The job should always go to the person who fits the role best. However, I think educating creatives from ALL levels of the industry to understand and gain an appreciation of what diversity brings to a business and teams. Much like in life, in general, we need to learn to let go of stereotypes and prejudices and learn to simple work hand in hand with each other regardless of your sex, race and background. I like to think that acknowledging it, and understanding that this lack of diversity exists is the first step forward.
We need to pave the way for the next generation of creatives who hopefully are brought up in a world that understands one and others differences but can live and work in harmony side by side. Also finding a fair amount of info on this was very good to know that it is not something I am concerned about. There are people like AIGA who really try to bring topics like this to the main stream and hold events and talks to educate designers from all walks of life about diversity. I recently found the amazing She Says organisation, which aims to help women further their careers in digital creative industries by empowering them via talks, events and mentoring.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this all, weather you have experienced it yourself, noticed that this is a problem, whatever it may be. So please, don’t let stereotypes get in your way of making formative decisions on anything in life, let’s bring down the walls and glass ceilings to work together smarter and stronger.
Oh and not to forget, be a FUCKING POWER RANGER!
Check out my twitter at www.twitter.com/HashmukhKerai and my Instagram at www.instagram.com/hashmukh. You can also see some of my work at www.hashmukh.com
