Pamphlets on Design

Pamphlets on DesignDesign & the Science of Us Themes on Designing Ginhawa A Guide to Designing Ginhawa Letterpress bookmark Pamphlets on Design is a collection of critical writing on design, for and about the Philippines. It hopes to encourage a critical understanding of design, how its connected to systems of both justice and injustice, and how it might be reclaimed and reshaped towards our collective liberation. This first collection is based on Kar Abolas MA

✨Design & the Science of Us
✨Themes on Designing Ginhawa
✨A Guide to Designing Ginhawa
✨Letterpress bookmark

Pamphlets on Design is a collection of critical writing on design, for and about the Philippines. It hopes to encourage a critical understanding of design, how it’s connected to systems of both justice and injustice, and how it might be reclaimed and reshaped towards our collective liberation.

This first collection is based on Kar Abola’s MA Psychology thesis, which tried to understand how design might cultivate ginhawa, or the Filipino idea of well-being rooted in freedom, dignity, & justice.

These zines were also designed with a lot of care and intention, to help bring academic writing beyond the university, into creative communities.


Published in the Philippines.

Kar Abola is a design strategist and researcher, grounded in indigenous psychology and design. Her work, spanning the fields of branding, experiences, government, and the social sciences, is always guided by the hope of making design malaya at mapagpalaya for all Filipinos.