Viral Design

The year of 2020 will be unforgettable in many ways. It in some ways symbolizes a year of contradictions – we have experienced mass mobilization to generate collective intelligence, yet we have never been so geographically and physically restricted.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected all areas of society, from supply chains to education. One of the key things we have experienced during this unprecedented period, is the rapid uptake of distributed design. The collaboration of makers and designers to collectively prototype, produce and distribute has mitigated negative impacts of halted supply chains, opened up intellectual property rights, formed new partnerships between businesses, designers, key workers and most importantly, set the foundation to question the resilience of newly forged networks for the future.

This book collects observations and reflections from the Distributed Design Platform and extended community. It offers designers and makers across Europe and the rest of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most importantly, it highlights and explores the socio technological role and cultural impact of distributed design in the response to crisis.