Reimigining design
Joint Frontiers is a community fostering critical design. We created a space where design goes beyond conventional to become a tool for understanding and wayfinding, challenging and reimagining preferable futures amid the polycrisis.
We reject the reductive view of design as merely a tool, embracing design instead as a catalyst for systemic transformation. We examine design in the past, present and future, while simultaneously questioning its foundations and consequences. We don’t just improve design—we critically interrogate its purpose.
Our community centers around active members who embody critical consciousness: practitioners who understand that unlearning can be as valuable as learning, who recognize that design is inherently political, and who commit to consequence-aware actions. Beyond aesthetics and efficiency, we explore how we can dismantle harmful and extractive systems while building regenerative alternatives.
Through collective work, we aim to evolve design toward a holistic approach. This approach should acknowledge multiple ways of knowing and being. As a community, we don’t aim to reinvent design but rather to fundamentally question its assumptions and biases, while creating a safe space for the emergence of a new designer: one who can navigate complexity, embrace the uncertainty of the polycrisis, and design for transitions rather than business as usual.
Community stewards
Angelos Arnis
Angelos is a strategic designer building systems and conditions that drive meaningful impact, encourage radical collaboration, and promote intentional change. He is using design to create more equitable conditions for the planet and its people. Currently leading his own practice as a solo entrepreneur and activist at Mesa. For the past 18 years, he has been working with product/service companies and startups, both in early and high-growth stages. He is the co-founder at Joint Frontiers and an alumnus organizer of Joint Futures, IxDA, UXHel, DSCONF, & Junction Hackathon.
Yves Florack
Born in the Netherlands, raised in Switzerland and educated as an Industrial Designer in one of Europe’s Design Capitals: Eindhoven (NL), Yves decided to move to Helsinki in 2015, founded the UXHel Community in 2016 and now works as an Experience Design Lead at Siili. Yves is the co-founder at Joint Frontiers and an alumnus organizer of Joint Futures, & DSCONF.
Anni Leppänen
Anni is a strategic designer working with futures, sustainability transformations and policy design. After 15 years working as a public servant across government, she is now exploring systems transformation as a activist/artist entrepreneur at Futures Mundane and Falay Transition Design collective, in addition to her various community initiatives. Currently she is interested in futures prototyping, multispecies and embodied practice. Anni was previously lead service designer at the City of Helsinki strategy department, and the Chair of Finnish government design community and International Design in Government Conference 2024. Anni’s background is in social sciences from University of London, and strategic design for sustainability transitions at Aalto University.
Siia Kozina
Siia is a holistic designer and strategist dedicated to building sustainable digital futures for social good. Currently she nurtures design culture at the Impact Tech House in Illusian – a pioneering initiative creating tech solutions for non-profits, with a strong emphasis on impact measurement and youth mental health. Her passion for giving back is reflected in her roles as a top-rated early-stage startup mentor, facilitator, speaker, and lecturer, championing how lean digitalisation fueled with behavioural & systems design and digital sustainability & ethics can bring about a meaningful change while accelerating business growth. In 2016, she co-founded Memocate to elevate dementia care standards across Finland, Sweden, and Canada. Formerly led design in award-winning projects, ex-Futurice, Framlabs, Nordkapp.
