Propelling Ideas into Action

Design Ignites Change, a collaboration between the Adobe Foundation and Worldstudio, engages high school and college students in multidisciplinary design and architecture projects that address pressing social issues. Participants are encouraged to apply design thinking—the combination of unleashed creativity and executable actions—to problems that exist in their own communities.

Supporting Educators

Design Ignites Change enables high school and college educators to involve their students in projects that have positive social impact. The program offers guidance on running social-change projects and visibility for participating schools on the Design Ignites Change website.

Promoting Student Work

Student projects—in the form of case studies—are showcased on the Design Ignites Change website, a public exchange of ideas that gives visibility to the participants. Projects of note are promoted through the program’s public relations campaign to the business and creative communities, as well as the general public. View projects

Funding Innovation

Participating students and educators gain the entrepreneurial skills to secure funding for their projects. Using open-source documents and resources, the Design Ignites Change program provides a structure for students and educators to learn about various funding models that can help them carry out their projects.

Honoring Great Projects

Projects are eligible for a Design Ignites Change Award in one of two categories. The Idea Award will be given to a promising and innovative social change concept and the Implementation Award will offer grants for the real-world execution of a promising community project. In both categories, a jury of creative, business and civic leaders will select the project or projects they feel have the greatest ability to impact positive change on a local level.

Mentoring

Mentoring initiatives bring together college students and professional designers to collaborate with underserved high school students to execute a project around a compelling social theme.
Initiatives are supported by a robust set of open-source guidebooks and documents that give even the inexperienced mentor the tools they need to successfully complete the project while providing a rewarding experience for the student and themselves. Currently Design Ignites Change has two mentoring initiatives underway: Create! Don’t Hate. and School: by Design

Join Us!

To learn more about how your school or organization can participate in Design Ignites Change, visit the Who Can Participate and How to Participate pages of the website.

For more information about becoming a partner or sponsor, visit the Partners section of the website or contact Andréa Pellegrino.