Deem Journal, Issue 06: Inventing the Institution explores the sociocultural role of institutions and their relationship to the built environment. The issue looks at and beyond the physical structures of institutions to scrutinize the role of design in constructing their positions in society. The word “institution” has become a loaded signifier, representing the weight of a fraught history and the bureaucracy of the status quo. Some would argue that the negative attributes of institutions are inherent to their nature; but, what if their forms, languages, and modalities were actually mutable? Deem asks how we might design cultural organizations, educational bodies, and governing entities that better prioritize dignity, equity, and imagination, and embrace change rather than hinder it. To do so, this issue of Deem consults designers, artists, architects, scholars, and organizers across a multitude of backgrounds to speak on the institutions of yesterday, while sharing designs for their dreams of the future.

Isabel Flower is a New York-based editor and writer and executive editor of Deem Journal. She was formerly associate editor of Artforum and executive editor of Cultured Magazine. Her work has been published in Artforum, Bookforum, the Wall Street Journal, Cultured, Garage, Kaleidoscope, Double Mag, and others. She is coauthor, with Marcel Rosa-Salas, of The Nameplate: Jewelry, Culture, and Identity (Clarkson-Potter, 2023), editorial director of Foundwork, and cohost of the Top Rank podcast.

Nu Goteh is a multidisciplinary creative and designer who works in audio, visual, and written mediums. He is the cofounder of the strategy and design studio, Room for Magic, and cofounder and creative director of partner publication, Deem Journal. Goteh’s practice is informed by his love for counter/subculture(s), his background as a Liberian-born refugee, and a lifelong dedication to building platforms that enable communities to engage in shared experiences. Goteh is focused on the capabilities of design-thinking and on investing in ideas that solve bigger problems as a means of elevating the well-being of others. With an inherent understanding of the elements needed to build community platforms, Goteh brings over a decade of branding, research, strategic development, ideation, and production to create equitable change to the way communities are being represented.

Alice Grandoit-Sutka is a champion for enhancing the way people connect with their experiences. Grandoit’s practice is rooted in empowerment, cultural collaborations, and the creation of experiential platforms molded around emergent creatives. As a social engagement designer and cultural researcher who builds awareness through strategic community partnerships programming, and experiences, she is focused on a multi-dimensional experience with the world. These ideas are united by her work as the cofounder and editor-at-large of Deem Journal. Grandoit-Sutka’s desire to pioneer human-centered solutions, combined with her experience working with global organizations for more than a decade, have informed her projects Room for Magic, a collaborative design studio, and its partner publication Deem Journal.

Marquise Stillwell is the founder of Openbox—a design studio and consultancy based in New York that works at the intersection of people and systems. A decade later he cofounded Deem Journal to provoke better questions around design. A creative entrepreneur, impact investor, and cultural ally, Stillwell is focused on making big ideas tangible for all people. His belief is that we can help inform the future of cities through a creative lens by thinking about people first, and buildings and objects second. Stillwell serves as a board member for Stae, Artmatr, and Urban Ocean Lab. He is also a member of the High Line advisory committee.

Deem is a print journal and online platform focused on design as social practice. Founded in 2019 by three Black creatives—Nu Goteh (a multi-disciplinary designer and cofounder of strategy and design studio Room for Magic), Alice Grandoit (a cultural researcher, nonprofit developer and cofounder of Room for Magic), and Marquise Stillwell (the founder of Openbox, a NYC—based design studio and consultancy), Deem has since published five substantial print issues alongside original online content and two podcast series, as well as hosting three digital forums and one in-person/virtual hybrid symposium. Deem intends is to explore human-centric design frameworks independent of exclusive institutions and industry categories; ask what design can do for communities by creating conversations that are transdisciplinary and intergenerational; seek to uncover meaningful narratives, connections, and patterns that might help us better understand our histories and imagine our futures.