aSDL is initiated by Kokum Design Trust.
A foundation that aims to enable, inspire and connect design in the public domain, refining tools for social impact through engagement with real life contexts. Kokum remains focused on socio-environmental design interventions while providing a platform to connect government, designers and active citizens for a better India.
Design is defined by the popular perception of aesthetics and consumerism rather than the process of empathy and inclusion. The value of design in the socio-environmental sector is yet to be recognized.
Despite this, social design, or design for social change, has been informally active across a wide demographic. Kokum aims to give impetus to this area and has celebrated these efforts by bringing it into the mainstream narrative through a festival (socialdesignfestival.com) and now, a social design library.
a Social Design Festival (aSDF) seeds ideas through design hackathons, whereas a Social Design Library (aSDL) maps organizations and studios involving implementation of design in the socio-ecological sphere.