In this Issue ...
dig.ni.fy
William Paul Wanker
Founder
dig.ni.fy magazine
is produced in partnership with Dignity Projects.
London, England
© 2025, dig.ni.fy magazine.
All rights reserved.
Welcome to our special issue of dig.ni.fy
magazine, an issue that provides what we
believe represents the "Best of Dig.ni.fy,"
developed as gift for attendees of our first
"Dignify by Design" Summit, held in
partnership with the Museum of New
Mexico Foundation over the course of
9-10 July 2025 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but
The purpose of the summit was to bring together leaders in the fields of design, craft, art, architecture, and film to discuss their creative process and how dignity informs their work. The concept of dignity was selected because we believe that design has an important role to play in dignifying lives and shared spaces. Equally it is an essential and unifying concept on which to focus our collective creative energy.
Speakers included: Co-Executive Director and Senior Principal of MASS Design, Patricia Gruits; Mexican designer, Fernando Laposse; ceramicist, designer, and film maker, Virgil Ortiz; Executive Director of the International Folk Art Market, Stacey Edgar; Executive Director at Handshouse Studio, Marie Brown; and Principals of A + A Design Studio, Aki & Arnaud Cooren. Collectively, they demonstrate/d how their work moves a cultural tradition forward and/or encourages healthy communities. Together with invited guests, they explored how design can respectfully engage cultural material as a source of inspiration, build community and allow members to flourish.
As a takeaway from the summit, we hope this special issue will not only remind participants of the many conversations held and lessons learned but provoke further inspiration as they peruse articles of other creatives and makers profiled in previous issues. Working together to embrace the concept of human dignity and living a dignified existence, we hope now to host regularly scheduled summits around the world so to expand the conversation around the notion of how we can better embed dignity into the design of more respectiful and inclusive communities.
Finally, we wish to thank all who spoke or attended the summit, as well as the many sponsors and people who contributed to its success. Their efforts ensured our success.
Enjoy!
Wil
Cover:
"Antelope," by Samson Kambalu. "Antelope" restages a photograph of Baptist preacher and pan-Africanist John Chilembwe and European missionary John Chorley as a sculpture. The Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London England.
Photo courtesy of WW.