Post by Maitreyi Narsalay

“What if peace wasn’t something we just talked about, but something we designed for?” That was the starting point of the Design for Peace workshop that Prarthana Shinde and I recently facilitated for New Humanity International NGO We began by asking participants what they thought Prarthana (an Architect) and I (a Visual Designer) do as professionals. The answers were familiar: architects build buildings, visual designers create advertisements, videos, and graphics. But design is rarely about the thing being made. It’s about the intention behind it. As we explored the difference between art, craft, and design, we arrived at a simple idea: 🎨 Art expresses. 🛠️ Craft creates. 💡 Design serves. And if design serves others, then empathy becomes its foundation. The goal of this workshop wasn’t to have another conversation about peace. It was to create an actionable plan for peace. Using a Design for Peace worksheet™ that we developed, the audience moved through a structured design thinking journey: identifying challenges, uncovering root causes, building personas, generating ideas, and shaping solutions. The room was filled with sketches, doodles, sticky notes, conversations, and craft materials. In fact, the audience wasn’t allowed to use AI during the empathy, define, and ideation stages. We wanted human observation, curiosity, and lived experience to drive the process. AI could only be used later to visualize concepts if needed. The result was really fascinating… Ideas addressing community spaces, environmental concerns, littering, digital addiction leading to spread of misinformation, and human connection. What struck me most was that many people didn’t see themselves as designers when they walked in. By the end, they were designing solutions for the people and communities around them. And perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway: You don’t need to be a designer to design for peace. You simply need to notice, empathize, and take the first step. Because peace doesn’t begin with world-changing ideas. It begins with actionable ones. #peace #change #designthinking #peaceinaction #design #community