image: The Design Stories Warsaw conference examines the practices of responsibility in design through five thematic panels.
Credit: SWPS University
What challenges do designers face in a rapidly transforming world? How does the act of making become a dialogue between people, places, and resources? What is the role of museums and design pedagogy? Join us at the School of Form, SWPS University, for Design Stories Warsaw – a free conference highlighting women designers, creative innovation, and social responsibility.
Design Stories is part of the Looking Through Objects project, which explores women’s contributions to change through design and creative practices. The project includes a touring exhibition, lecture series, talks, and interviews organized in different locations across Poland, the UK, Belgium, and the Baltics.
The Design Stories Warsaw conference examines the practices of responsibility in design through five thematic panels. Topics include social challenges, material storytelling, collecting, and pedagogy. Together, the panels highlight how women designers shape cultural memory, foster collaboration, and reimagine design as a vehicle for storytelling, ethical reflection, and social transformation.
Thematic Panels
Panel 1: Networks of Responsibility
Design operates within webs of responsibility — to communities, environments, and future generations. This panel explores how designers use networks as platforms for activism, advocacy, and ethical action. From grassroots initiatives to global campaigns, the speakers will reflect on how communication tools, design methods, and collective practices can shift cultural and political narratives. What are the ethical limits of design activism? How can practitioners balance visibility and responsibility without reproducing systems of exclusion or exploitation?
Key words: activism · communication · ethics
Panel 2: Searching for Solutions
Design is often positioned as a discipline of problem-solving. But whose problems are we solving — and how? This panel considers how practitioners frame social, personal, and civilizational challenges in their work. Moving beyond surface-level fixes, the conversation will address the tension between pragmatic solutions and deeper systemic transformation. Are designers mediators between individual needs and collective futures, or does this responsibility extend beyond the discipline itself?
Key words: social issues · selfhood · civilization
Panel 3: Narratives in Making
Making is more than a process — it is a form of narrative. This panel examines how designers use material practices to tell stories, build collaborations, and reimagine tradition. Whether through ceramics, product design, or transnational practices, the speakers will share how material choices communicate values, histories, and futures. How does the act of making become a dialogue between people, places, and resources?
Key words: materials · storytelling · collaboration
Panel 4: Curating Design Futures
Museums are powerful agents in shaping how design is valued, remembered, and taught. This panel explores the role of institutions in collecting, exhibiting, and educating through design. Speakers will reflect on curatorial strategies that foreground underrepresented voices, challenge canonical narratives, and expand what counts as “design.” How can museums keep pace with the urgency of contemporary issues while also serving as archives of the past?
Key words: museums · collecting · education
Panel 5: Pedagogies of Practice
Design education is not just about skills — it is about shaping ways of thinking, reflecting, and engaging with the world. This panel brings together practitioners who experiment with methods that bridge disciplines, from sound and textiles to AI, robotics, and craft. Their practices open questions about how design pedagogy can embrace uncertainty, hybridity, and collaboration with more-than-human intelligences. What pedagogical models are needed to prepare future designers for the challenges of a rapidly transforming world?
Key words: methods · pedagogy · reflection
Design Stories Warsaw is a collaboration between the Royal College of Art and SWPS University, with the support of the British Council and in partnership with Disegno Journal. It is part of the British Council UK/Poland Cultural Season 2025.
The conference is free, but registration is required. Read more about program and panelists and sign up on our website.