DESIGN AS A POLITICAL SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

The US National Design Studio and "America by Design" initiative represent a shift from liberal capitalism to neo-mercantile governance, recasting citizens as guests in a national hospitality experience. The initiative employs aesthetic design to garner allegiance and legitimize administrative control, rather than empowering users, treating design as an infrastructure for state authority. Without built-in provenance and recourse mechanisms, this approach risks using beautiful interfaces to launder bureaucratic violence and restrict citizen agency through "friendly fascism."