new member | design for ukraine (D4U)

25.02.2026 Announcements

ICoD is pleased to welcome Design for Ukraine (D4U), Ukraine, as our new Professional Member. Design for Ukraine (D4U), founded in 2019, D4U's vision is to ensure a better life for citizens by implementing design tools and promoting design culture.

Design for Ukraine, a Ukrainian non-profit organisation based in Kyiv, Ukraine, has become a Professional Member of the International Council of Design (ICoD). Membership in ICoD marks a further step toward integrating the Ukrainian design community into the global professional context and opens additional opportunities for participation in international discussions, working groups, and collaborative initiatives.

Design for Ukraine is a professional non-profit organisation that initiates and supports systemic change within Ukraine’s design sector. It operates at the intersection of professional ethics, legal literacy, education, public dialogue, and international cooperation, bringing together designers, researchers, and cultural practitioners around principles of collaboration and responsibility. D4U organises public events, develops strategic projects, and contributes to policy development in design.

Key initiatives of Design for Ukraine include Kyiv Design Week, research on professional ethics in design in Ukraine, and the Uzgoda Contract Toolkit — a set of open-access contract templates for designers and illustrators, developed in collaboration with the National Intellectual Property Office of Ukraine.

A particular focus of the organisation’s work is ethics in design. In 2025, Design for Ukraine conducted a comprehensive national study on the state of professional ethics in Ukrainian design, combining quantitative surveys, in-depth interviews, and public panel discussions. The research addresses new challenges the profession faces in the context of full-scale war, including issues of responsibility, working conditions, authorship, international collaboration, and the impact of design on society.

Design for Ukraine views its membership in ICoD as an opportunity for deeper integration — enabling the exchange of professional practices, the development of standards, strengthened dialogue with educational and public institutions, and the representation of Ukrainian experience at the global level.

The membership became possible with the support of the British Council’s grant programme “Creative Economy Development.”