Design for Equity, Inclusivity, & Systemic Change
Originally envisioned by Steven Heller as a key component of the PRINT Awards, Citizen Design is a free-entry category dedicated to recognizing outstanding work that addresses social, cultural, and environmental issues and other challenges that impact society. This year’s PRINT Citizen Design category recognizes and celebrates the most impactful work that fosters empathy and action. From social awareness campaigns to apps, community-centered design projects, infographics, posters, social media graphics, and interactive experiences, Citizen Design will honor work that strives to make our world more compassionate and just.
Social justice in design focuses on creating equitable solutions that address systemic inequalities and empower marginalized communities. It involves actively challenging oppression, advocating for inclusivity, and ensuring that design outcomes promote fairness and accessibility for all. Social justice design is deeply rooted in ethics and activism, often working to dismantle barriers related to race, gender, class, and ability.
Our 2025 jury for Citizen Design understands that design is an important tool for activism and change. Through their varied careers, they all use their stellar skills to uplift communities and dismantle systemic barriers.
Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.
Amos Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. was working a corporate job for AT&T when, at the age of 40, he discovered the art of letterpress printing on a tour of Colonial Williamsburg. Kennedy then devoted himself to the craft, earning an MFA at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and teaching at Indiana University. He now operates Kennedy Prints!, a communal letterpress center in Detroit. Borrowing words from social justice heroes Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and others, Kennedy layers bold statements on race, capitalism, history, and politics in exuberant, colorful, and one-of-a-kind posters. Kennedy has been featured in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, and The Economist, and his work has been exhibited by the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and other institutions throughout the US. He was the subject of a 2012 feature-length documentary, Proceed and Be Bold!
Jennifer Rittner
Jennifer Rittner is a writer, communications strategist, and assistant professor in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design. From 2016 to 2021, she served on the faculty in the MFA Products of Design and MA Design Research Writing and Criticism, where she taught courses in design history for writers, design for social value, design and politics, graphic design history, and thesis research and writing. Rittner’s research considers the construction of pedagogies that critique the intersections of design and power, primarily through the intersectional lenses of race, gender, ability, and socio-economic status.
In Spring 2021, she served as guest editor for a special issue of Design Museum Everywhere dedicated to critiquing design in and of policing. Rittner edited Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Black Caribbean Makers (2024) by Malene Barnett; served as the development editor for The Black Experience in Design (2022); and contributed an essay on the designer David Klein to Poster House Museum’s exhibition catalog Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters.
I genuinely feel excited by students who are demonstrating an interest and acuity around the relationships between design and public policy, understanding that the things they contribute to making – products, services, experiences, environments – react to and inform civic life in complex ways. Many students seem to understand this and are driven to build more responsible futures as a result.
Jennifer Rittner
In addition to teaching, Rittner has worked for a number of design and design-adjacent institutions, including Pentagram, Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, and the AIGA. As museum educator at the American Federation of Arts (AFA) in the 1990s, Rittner led Art Access II, an initiative designed to increase museum attendance among under-served communities through education and community outreach. She earned her M.Ed. in Communication and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where her thesis, “Space, Time, and Objects,” proposed pedagogies of equity and access in the art history curriculum.
Janell Nelson
Janell Nelson is a director, graphic designer, creative strategist, and more. A thoughtful force who devotes her skill and heart to impactful change, her mission statement literally is “design for good”.
Her award-winning firm—JNJ Creative— has been the not-so-secret sauce behind many nonprofits and equity-focused organizations and artists nationwide. From Harris Theater at Millennium Park to Englewood Branded’s storage container POPCourt designs on 63rd St, Nelson stewards the identity of spaces in Chicago and beyond. Her reimagining of educational design for the Folded Map Project curriculum has won a national Sappi Ideas That Matter award, and her design of a public Action Kit for Folded Map nonprofit, meant to disrupt segregation on a personal level, is featured at the Chicago History Museum’s exhibit, Designing for Change.
Nelson is also the leader behind Englewood Arts Collective’s mutual-aid initiatives (over 70K to other artists to date), and she leads all of EAC’s community-facing art activations, including producing the EAC Arts Village experience at Englewood Music Fest. Her accolades, like her portfolio, run long. Her proposals have won citywide competitions, and she’s been honored as Chicago’s “Hidden Philanthropist” for the nationally toured Soul of Philanthropy Exhibit.
From steering the public art for Tonika Johnson’s unBlocked Englewood restorative justice project to realizing sculptures on both Michigan Avenue and in Englewood, Nelson is an artist who knows that designing with and not just for community—and that ‘community’ is intersectional— is essential for equitable engagement.
Entering the Citizen Design category is an opportunity to showcase work that drives meaningful change. Whether through branding, campaigns, publications, or digital experiences, submissions should demonstrate a commitment to social impact and ethical design. Not only could your work gain international recognition, but you’ll also contribute to a broader conversation about the role of design in shaping a more just and inclusive world.
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