Education Events in Cambridge

Design is not simply in crisis; it’s in an identity crisis—a profession uncertain of its purpose, value, and future. In this talk, Zak Kyes, founder and creative director of Zak Group, traces how design has historically metabolized moments of rupture: from the printing press to platform capitalism, from wartime propaganda to today’s prompt-driven production. Drawing on two decades of work across cultural institutions, fashion, and contemporary art, he shows how the sands have shifted: the mid-tier collapse, the acceleration of AI, and a profession increasingly compressed into speed, style—and little else. Drawing from recent projects with Nike, Dover Street Market, and others, Kyes introduces a set of practical frameworks he calls Crisis Overrides: tools for navigating uncertainty, protecting authorship, and reclaiming strategic agency at a moment when design’s relevance is no longer guaranteed. Part memoir, part manifesto, part diagnosis, “Identity Crisis” reframes instability as a generative condition, reminds us that the most vital designs have always emerged because of chaos, not in spite of it.