Constructing Design Values: DEI-Related Framings in U.S. Architecture and Design Firms’ Public-Facing Communication

Following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020, a rise in social consciousness swept across the United States. These incidents prompted many firms to issue statements and dedicate resources to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). However, how DEI is addressed in design firms’ public-facing communication is underexplored. This study offers a summative content analysis of insights, white papers, and reports published by nine leading U.S. architecture and design firms to understand how the industry engages with issues of inequality. As design firms’ media contribute to the industry’s culture, this study highlights aspects of their leadership in addressing contemporary social challenges. Findings are organized in two main sections: overarching trends in DEI communications and an in-depth analysis of identity representation using the Four Layers of Diversity Framework. Overall, leading firms frame design as a force for social change within broader socio-ecological systems, emphasizing the ethical and business cases for DEI, particularly in the surge of publications post-2020. However, the diversity of identities represented remains uneven. Categories such as race, gender and sexuality, abilities, and age receive more attention than religion and socio-economic status. Content types such as design guidelines and industry insights, firms’ culture and policies, historical and employee profiles, and project case studies also highlight some identities more than others. Beyond offering insights into the design industry’s DEI engagement, this study contributes a novel approach to evaluating DEI communication by critically analyzing how different identities are portrayed, a topic that has been overlooked in corporate studies that mainly focus on DEI communication and business outcomes.