Saal Design stands in solidarity with the Black community and is committed to working towards dismantling systemic racism, especially within the interior design industry.
Like many of those who work in the interiors industry in the UK, I am white and middle class. However, I have spent the last 30 years raising my mixed-heritage children. I have witnessed my children and their father experience overt racism time and time again and it is something that, although I know I will never understand first hand, I am very committed to fighting.
My role during this time is not to lead, but to support and amplify. With that in mind, my daughter, Romy, who works alongside me at Saal Design, has offered to assist with this statement.
The lack of ethnic and economic diversity within the interior design industry has been a conversation we’ve been having internally at Saal Design for a while. I’ve been in the industry for over three decades and have seen very little improvement or development; industry events remain mainly white, high wealth spaces.
Over the last year, it was becoming increasingly apparent that, as a company, we would need to find ways to start this conversation publicly within our industry. It is with regret that it has taken the murder of George Floyd in the US and the subsequent developments of the global Black Lives Matter movement for us to finally do this.
Saal Design would like to be clear about what actions we will be taking to ensure that these conversations are not delayed or forgotten moving forwards:
We will be reaching out to industry leadership, asking them for a clear action plan on how they intend to improve upon the lack of Black and other ethnic minority representation within the industry.
We will be making recurring donations to anti-racist charities. If anyone knows of any great charities that support Black and other ethnic minorities in Art & Design, please let us know.
We will investigate how we can attract more Black and other ethnic minority applicants for work experience/internship positions.
We will commit to incorporating more educational content on our instagram/blog; so much of ‘British’ design has its origins in our colonial past, we will commit to telling these histories.
We are still learning and would love to develop this conversation with other designers and industry figures: please send us an email, or let’s talk in the comments. We hope this movement towards open, honest and difficult dialogues will begin the long journey towards real change and growth.
Many thanks,
Sarah Ahluwalia & the Saal Design team