This course asks: How does design work as a tool for shaping, understanding, and communicating identity—“the fact of being who or what a person is”—in everyday life? Designed environments, objects, and interfaces allow us to shape the “facts” of how we see ourselves and others. Today, design organizes how we navigate public spaces and digital environments, impacts the way we understand everything from our political positions to our brand preferences, and positions us within both our local communities and the global commodities marketplace. Specific places, times, and cultures influence how humans understand and use design, and knowledge of these environmental contexts allows us to recognize our own context(s) as particular rather than universal. With a diverse and global range of design artifacts as our case studies, we’ll interrogate issues related to form (the visual and physical qualities of design), function (what design is used for, and how), and philosophy (the underlying conceptual and ethical frameworks that inform the design process). Readings, viewings, discussions, critical making activities, and design-thinking exercises provide a shared framework for investigation. Through these, we’ll seek to understand the interactions between design and identity in order to become more informed and empowered makers and users of design.