„Designers are educators. Educators are designers.”
(Krummeck, 2018, online)

Design has always played a role in knowledge dissemination, starting from designers like Marie and Otto Neurath, who focused on educating the working class (cf. Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, n.d., online) to modern infodesigners like Mona Chalabi. (cf. Chalabi, 2023, online) Many creatives have taken it upon themselves to share knowledge through graphics and illustrations.

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„Burned out people can’t save the world.
How we’re discussing climate change is burning people out as fast as we are burning fossil fuels.”
(Kirwan, 2021, online)

Isabella Uhl-Hädicke's book is titled "Why Don't We Just Do It?" (cf. Uhl-Hädicke, 2022). Chris Pitt refers to it as the "value-action gap": Despite the majority of the population not denying climate change, being informed about it, and acknowledging the need for action, there is often a lack of implementation in practice. Reasons for this include self-deception, competing values, impulse buying, habit, complexity, overwhelm, skepticism, hypocrisy, and cost (cf. Pitt, 2022, online) .

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Hello! Today, I'd like to share an excerpt from a chapter of my master's thesis, focusing on how designers can effectively navigate and address errors in their visual translations.

Berzbach explains that translation errors can easily occur between designers and stakeholders. The latter often appear to designers like "aliens" speaking a different language: "The successful execution of a project is a communication task. [...] It will not succeed if you behave like a "Fachidiot" (german word for someone who is highly specialized in a specific field but lacks broader knowledge or perspective outside of that particular area) who only understands designers." (Berzbach, 2019, p. 120) Nevertheless, diversity is fundamentally good and should be appreciated. Conflicts can even give rise to new ideas. (cf. Berzbach, 2019, p. 70) As an outsider, one has the advantage of being able to objectively question the organization's existing beliefs and challenge them with alternative suggestions. However, if one is afraid of potential confrontation, this opportunity is missed, and everything remains as it is – sometimes to the advantage of a single powerful stakeholder and not for the benefit of end-users. (cf. Shea, 2012, p. 69)

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