Design as Defiance | Samuel Allotey | TEDxUMaT

Community & Impact - The speaker founded "Design Junkies," Ghana's largest design community, with over 600 people in the WhatsApp group alone and thousands online [4][5] - Design Junkies runs Fitcon, one of Ghana's largest design conferences, with over 360 people attending last year [5] - The speaker is visiting five university campuses across Ghana to inspire students that their future is a design, not a formula [1] - The speaker initiated the "Design of Greatness" campus tour to challenge the notion that permission is needed to begin building [6][7] - The campus tour events have shifted students' mindsets, with some feeling part of a community and seen [7][8] Design Philosophy - Design should amplify empathy, multiply imagination, and scale community, not erase, mimic, or isolate [10] - Design re-centers people by asking "who is this for," "how should it feel," and "what does it mean" [10] - The speaker views design as defiance, creating space in a world that didn't make room [11] - The speaker emphasizes human design, which is messy, emotional, and intuitive, over software, AI, or automation [8][9] - The speaker advocates for honest systems and deeper meaning over perfect systems and louder machines [11]