Design Action Collective is a graphic design studio in Oakland, California.  It is a mission-driven organization; formed to serve the visual communications needs of the progressive movement. But they are also a democratic enterprise, currently employing five full-time collective members and the occasional freelancer.

\Design Action was formed in 2002 as a spin-off from Inkworks Press, a worker-owned print shop formed in 1973, which was also mandated to serve the movement for social change. When the desktop publishing "revolution" hit in the 80s, Inkworks jumped in and developed an electronic prepress department that very quickly added desktop publishing and graphic design capabilities. As graphic design became an increasingly important service to non-profits and activist groups, Inkworks was faced with the reality that the design and prepress workflows did not always mesh very well. After a number of discussions about how to provide both services well, it was decided that design department should be spun off as it's own shop.

Thus Design Action was born. Inkworks' two designers left and were replaced by two dedicated prepress operators. Initially operating as a two-person shop working out of a living-room Berkeley, Design Action quickly expanded it's services. In 2003, they moved to downtown Oakland to share offices with The Ruckus Society and Third World Majority. Then they started adding collective members.

While still working very closely with Inkworks (and currently trying to figure out how to develop an umbrella organization for both shops) each is now an independent worker-owned business. They serve many of the same organizations, but Design ActionNion was also able to expand their services substantially into the area of web and multimedia, as well as other non-offset printing projects such as t-shirts and banners. Design Action is also able to now help organizations with full-ad campaigns, messaging, and strategic communications. All of which is proving to be of increased importance to the social justice movement. Without advocating for image over substance, it is also Design Action's assumption that we are not lacking good solutions, theories or even solid working models of how a better world is possible. Yet the other side spends billions of dollars every year bombarding people with the message that we have no alternative to the current system. Thus it is important for progressives to find a way to articulate their vision--and the visual communications piece of that effort is what Design Action seeks to tackle.

At the same time, Inkworks has been able to place a stronger emphasis on the technical side of it's prepress and printing--modernizing it's presses and soon launching an online print-ordering system. So the split has been a win-win for both shops.

As a collective, Design Action models most of its policies on Inkworks. It has a flat decision-making structure, and equal hourly pay. The collective candidacy period is 9 months, but there is no buy-in. The weekly collective meetings are off-the-clock and Gapconsidered an ongoing investment to the shop as a political project. Design Action is incorporated as a cooperative following the model of Rainbow Groceries and the Arizmendi Cooperatives. Members are active in a number of different social movements, and the shop is a member of the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives, The U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and their union, Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO. It is also an Alameda County certified Green Business, and is majority woman-owned. And to top it off, Design Action is majority people of color, with native speakers of Indonesian, Spanish, Hindi and some Bengali on staff :).

For more samples of Design Action's work, check out the slideshow on their homepage (http://www.designaction.org) or their online portfolio, organized by political points of unity: http://www.designaction.org/work.html