After finishing Design Against Design, I read Ian Lynam’s War With Myself, and for me it felt like a continuation of the same kind of reflection. It was again a strong reminder of how closely design is connected to the systems around us. Lynam does not only talk about design as a practical activity. He also looks deeply into the cultural and historical forces that influence it. He explains how design still carries traces of empire, violence, and inherited aesthetics, even when we do not want to see them. What we often call “good design” can in fact be part of narratives of power and exclusion.
Similar to Lo, Lynam points out the uncomfortable truth that design is never neutral or only visual. Every decision — a typeface, a layout, or a digital system — belongs to a larger cultural structure. It can repeat old hierarchies, even when we believe we are designing something modern or progressive. The struggle he describes happens both inside and outside the designer. It is the designer questioning their own education, habits, and biases. It is the realization that our work can unintentionally support cultural dominance or aesthetic violence simply by following what we have learned to see as “normal.”
For Lynam, meaningful design is not about showing cultural references or using the language of critique on the surface. Instead, it means asking which histories we continue, whose aesthetics we center, and which voices are missing. He argues that real responsibility in design does not come from performative actions or quick activist gestures. It comes from facing the uncomfortable history of the discipline itself. According to him, design becomes more ethical only when we accept both its problematic sides and its potential — not as a tool for branding or personal style, but as a way to question, disrupt, and rethink how culture is represented.
Lynam’s ideas also raise important questions for digital work. When we look at his arguments through the lens of web design, they become even more relevant, because digital interfaces shape everyday life at a massive scale. To better understand how his thinking can influence our own practice, the following four key learnings show how the themes from War With Myself translate directly into web design.
Design is shaped by history and culture, not only by aesthetics
Lynam shows that design is never created in isolation. It always carries influences from history, politics, and culture — including difficult topics such as colonialism and violence. This means designers must understand the past to avoid repeating harmful patterns in the present.
„Good design“ can still support systems of power
The book explains that even professional, clean, or widely accepted design can reinforce existing hierarchies. Without critical thinking, designers can easily reproduce ideas that exclude or silence certain groups, even if this is not their intention.
Designers must question their own training and assumptions
A central theme is the inner conflict of the designer. Lynam encourages us to reflect on what we learned in school, what we consider “normal,” and where our biases come from. This self-reflection is necessary to understand how our practice might contribute to cultural dominance.
Ethical design requires confronting uncomfortable truths
Lynam argues that real responsibility does not come from surface-level activism or aesthetic gestures. Instead, ethical design means engaging with the uncomfortable history of the discipline, asking critical questions, and being willing to rethink how we represent culture through our work.
Relation to web design practice
For web design, Lynam’s ideas are especially meaningful because digital interfaces have a strong influence on how people see and interact with the world.
Websites and apps often follow established patterns that look neutral but actually come from specific cultural and historical traditions. This means that web designers also have a responsibility to question their choices and understand the systems they are part of. Whether it is the structure of a navigation menu, the use of certain interaction patterns, or the way content is presented, every decision carries values and assumptions. By looking at web design through Lynam’s perspective, it becomes clear that ethical and thoughtful digital design requires more than good visuals — it requires awareness, critical reflection, and a willingness to challenge what is considered “normal” in the digital space.
Lynam, I. (2024) War With Myself: Essays on Design, Culture & Violence. Set Margins Publications.
AI (Perplexity and ChatGPT as well as DeepL) was used to check spelling and grammar and better clarity.
