Portraying Outgroups —The Effect of Biases in the Design Process

I will study how social biases dictate the design process when it involves portraying outgroups and, on the other hand, how does consciousness of one’s biases affect it. I will use autoethnographic approach reflecting on my design process in the light of the literature and the data, taking note especially on any biases and underlying motives.

As a case I will design illustrations of African characters for microstocks. I chose Africans as the subject because I have worked in Ghana for three years and lot of my work has had African characters as subject. As a European portraying Africans I am in a position where I might be unconsciously reinforcing stereotypes and repeating clichés. In my study I will pay attention to my own biases and try to reflect the body of study around the subject.

I will also take a look at some of the major microstock collections to find out how African characters are commonly portrayed in that context. I will sample ten first search results from five microstock collections —Shutterstock, Fotolia, Dreamstime, Istock and Adobe Stock, 50 illustrations in all, ruling out photographic material and images I will also rule out illustrations about African-American characters and other characters from so-called “ Africans in diaspora”. I will then analyse the illustrations paying attention to the roles the characters are assigned to.