Audubon Highlight: Bethany Chan, A Designer for Others

Path maps improved for readability, fastidiously organized journal articles, t-shirts—these are only a few of the issues Bethany Chan has helped convey to life as Audubon’s Walker Design Fellow.

Over the past a number of months, Chan has labored with Audubon’s design workforce to create forward-facing supplies that allow Audubon’s group conservation efforts in an inclusive, accessible manner, from growth communications to colourful illustrations. Regardless of the size, every challenge feels equally necessary.

“As soon as I spotted the influence this work has on individuals in and out of doors of the group, all the things felt high-stakes to me,” Chan mentioned.

As a designer, one in every of Chan’s central values is to contemplate the needs, long-term results, and legacies of the merchandise and experiences that they create. Engaged on a doc like the primary version of Audubon’s subject security guide was an enormous enterprise, however Chan says that its future utility makes it a worthwhile effort. At greater than 130 pages, the sector guide is a primary step in making a tradition of security in Audubon’s on-the-ground conservation work. But it surely’s hardly a hard and fast doc—it has already been revised a number of instances and will likely be up to date regularly based mostly on the experiences of employees and volunteers who want it.

“In the end, crucial suggestions comes from individuals who use [the manual],” they mentioned. “As designers, we’re designing for others, however we do not at all times essentially know what they want. It’s necessary to get different opinions to know if one thing is actually inclusive, particularly with one thing as pressing as conservation.”

Chan’s impulse to make use of their design abilities in service of others didn’t begin, nor will it finish, with the fellowship. Throughout their second yr at college, Chan helped co-found a design training nonprofit that started off as a sketching workshop in the summertime of 2016. Chan enrolled within the workshop after their freshman yr on the College of Illinois at Chicago, the place they double majored in industrial and graphic design. They wouldn’t obtain tutorial credit, nor would their teacher be paid, however everybody within the class confirmed up and dedicated to 1 one other.

The group reorganized as a non-profit referred to as Superior Design after internet hosting regional occasions within the Midwest and experiencing speedy development with an annual convention. As membership soared, its targets grew from peer networking to connecting with a worldwide design group—which meant addressing limitations that push sure individuals out of design areas, like racism, gender discrimination, burnout, and an absence of psychological well being sources.

“At first, we needed to enhance our abilities and join with like-minded people,” says Chan. “However the extra we discovered concerning the gaps within the business, the extra we needed to convey gentle [to them].”

Chan’s nonetheless on the board and main visible communication at Superior Design, working with a workforce that helps degree the enjoying subject for novices and professionals alike. However very similar to designing merchandise for others, attaining this fairness isn’t a simple or static course of. They recall the pilot of the group’s 12-week on-line design training program, Offsite, which connects aspiring design college students to business professionals, as a educating second. Throughout its pilot launch in September 2020, Chan discovered that missteps can nonetheless occur, even with preparation and good intentions.

“We had a lot of hiccups, from the confusion in our software course of to the gradual drop-off of scholars in direction of the tip of the semester,” says Chan. “But it surely’s taught us quite a lot of precious classes—from how a lot college students hate taking surveys to addressing workloads and burnout.”

In keeping with Chan, connecting with their supposed viewers—the scholars—and training self-forgiveness was a big a part of the revision course of.

“As these points come alongside, it may well really feel fairly helpless at first, however engaged on a workforce with such completely different minds helped us overcome these with varied approaches,” says Chan. “It was additionally necessary for us as designers to take the time to hear and study from [students] about oversights we missed alongside the best way.”

Whereas Chan’s resume additionally consists of work at a furnishings line and as a UI/UX contractor, they are saying they’ve discovered probably the most fulfilling work within the nonprofit sector. The need to create significant experiences and construct a extra inclusive and various community drew them to the Walker Fellowship within the first place—its marriage of social justice with artwork and design was in contrast to some other position they noticed.

Chan’s expertise at each Superior Design and at Audubon has cemented what they prioritize in a piece atmosphere and need to design sooner or later.

“I hope to do work that is each significant to myself and [builds] a extra inclusive and various design group [for] BIPOC and marginalized designers,” says Chan. “I’ve seen the best way I can assist and contact individuals outdoors my speedy circle, and Audubon is actually nice at facilitating that with individuals—and birds.”