Ali Fawkes does a lot of heavy lifting in her work and her life, literally. Being severely dyslexic growing up, she turned to art as a way to give voice to her inner world. That led to a degree in fine arts, and reaching students with special needs through art, many of whom were nonverbal. Through a chance encounter, she became the first employ of the social design firm Humanly, who uses co-design and inclusion as a way to design with underrepresented and marginalized communities. We talk about her career path that led her to doing work with social impact. We also talk about how being naive and uninformed can be tremendous assets to keeping an open mind. We talk about how an art background keeps her in a mindset of disruption and innovation, breaking old norms to create new possibilities. Finally, we talk about her competing strongperson competitions, and how that is related to social design work.
I just got back from the Customer Alpha event that was part of the broader FTT Embedded Finance, Payments, and Future Identity event, put on by VC Innovations. It was the first time I’ve spoken publicly about my concept of THE UN-WOW, focusing our efforts more on everyday mundane experiences rather than transformative metamorphic experiences. There is more to it than that, so stay tuned for updates as I work on a book on THE UN-WOW.
While in London, I was able to go to the Tate Modern Art Museum. This was quite the shift after visiting museums in Florence with all of the Renaissance representational art. One of the interesting differences between the two is that the art in Florence often was made for patrons who were commissioning artwork, which ultimately was made to please those patrons. The art in the Tate often was made by artists who were trying to please themselves using art as a statement. As a result, the artists’ statements became a key piece of looking at and understanding what the art was meant to represent and the response it was hoping to create.
Regardless of whether sponsored representational or abstract and surreal, through art one can give external voice to one’s internal dialogue to create a social experience.
On today’s episode of Experience by Design podcast, I welcome Ali Fawkes, the Head of Social Innovation at the social design firm Humanly. “Humanly is an award-winning design studio specializing in human-centered design for social impact.” On their website, they continue to describe themselves as, “specialising in inclusive, creative and participatory research and design with seldom-heard and underrepresented groups.”
I came to learn about Ali and Humanly through a paper she co-authored on “Co-designing the Future of Respiratory Healthcare” in the journal CoDesign - the International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts, detailing their work and approach.
Ali is a self-described “art kid,” who found an outlet for her own voice. She went on to get a degree in Fine Art from the University of Kent, as well as additional certifications and degrees in Secondary Art and Special and Inclusive Education from the University of Cambridge. Ali describes co-design efforts she did with students during her work as a secondary school art teacher and educator in schools whose students had special needs.
She describes her journey from that rewarding work to working with Humanly. We discuss how being an outsider with little knowledge about a setting or industry can be a real gift to having open eyes and ears to learn from people who are often not listened to. Ali discusses the ethical considerations and methodologies involved in working with underrepresented groups, emphasizing the importance of truthful representation and co-design approaches. We also discuss the importance of her artistic background as a source of challenging norms and disruption, leading to innovative approaches.
And if doing social design and impact isn’t enough heavy lifting, Ali also participates in strongperson competitions, lifting very heavy things and sometimes having to carry them across distances. Which is not unlike trying to lift complex problems and carry solutions forward.
I always love good art talk on Experience by Design, and especially when it is connected to social impact.
Ali Fawkes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alifawkes/
Humanly: https://www.designhumanly.com/
“Co-designing the Future of Respiratory Healthcare”: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15710882.2025.2603298