How can design be used to share global experiences as they relate to life in a pandemic? This exhibition explores how the collective actions of communication designers around the world use design to communicate important and unifying messages. Designed For Action: a Collective Response to COVID-19 presents a significant body of work from over 50 countries that engages this broad cultural debate revealing design artefacts for new audiences in Geelong, a UNESCO City of Design. Initiated by the United Nations in 2020, the exhibition centres on fostering constructive change by sharing outputs of visibly engaging and informative design artefacts.

Unpredictable actions come from unpredictable circumstance. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all in new and novel ways. Designers working in this ‘new’ mode was never anticipated and this exhibition demonstrates how a collective response by designers can contribute to unifying communities positively in a crisis. This exhibition is accessible across multiple physical locations presented in COVID-Safe mode, and across digital screens and light boxes in Geelong as well as presented virtually.