HELEN PENG / 海月

Designing with & for communities.

Currently @ UISG. Prev @ Apple.

HELEN PENG / 海月

Designing with & for communities.

Currently @ UISG. Prev @ Apple.

role

co-chair

with

2 other co-chairs

32-person organizing committee

what

Brown RISD's annual joint design conference

when

jan 2021-

oct 2022

Better World by Design (BWxD) is a professional design conference held annually in Providence, RI.

BRANDING

CONTENT KIT

WEBSITE

POSTERS

SCHEDULE

TICKETS

PICTURES FROM THE CONFERENCE

A FEW OF OUR SPEAKERS

ME GIVING THE OPENING STATEMENTS

REFLECTION

What does it mean to design ethically?

Design can often be viewed as only existing within spheres of capitalism and enterprise, but “design” simply implies that there was consideration and purpose in creating something. As a part of Better World, I was able to consider the tremendous power design has and how more things than I thought were designed.

Leadership : Guidance

Before, becoming co-chair of BWxD, I was part of Content, meaning that I invited speakers and, well, designed the content of the conferene. I found that bringing this perspective into leadership allowed me to guide our committee to work with them, instead of over them.

Never too early to plan ahead

Our committee had exactly a year to plan our fully fledged, in-person conference. We had to learn to juggle budgeting, sponsorships, booking spaces, contacting speakers, and inviting an audience of attendees, all while functioning as full-time students. I learned quickly to plan for the worst and aim for the best. 


Special thanks to Sofia Di Lodovico and Selena Yang for being the best co-chairs I can ask for; Christie Sung, Rafael Li, and Nicole Nideff for being my SE babies; and Ryan Peng and Jessie Hogan for carrying the torch forward.