Marion Lean

Risqué! Red Tape- just another design material?

The term "red tape," now common in policy discussion, originates from the red ribbon once used to bind important legal documents. Ribbon, a flexible, playful textile, can evoke images of gift bows or even historical uses in underwear, to hold things together, perhaps to keep hidden, while "tape" suggests something sticky. Viewing ribbon as both a craft material and a symbol of (physical) constraint offers design researchers a material lens through which to identify and challenge restrictive practices in regulatory policy contexts. This paper presents a practice report from a ‘designer in policy’ who takes risks and pushes boundaries of design practice to influence organisational culture towards a desired outcome of adopting an ‘innovation mindset’. The context, a government regulator responsible for managing societal risks offers a novel setting to examine and challenge notions of risk and experimentation.

Without the structure, standards, or career pathways found in digital roles, designers in policy risk burnout, stretching skills to cover corporate, pastoral responsibilities and even additional specialist skills such as evaluation. Groom, 2025 offers the textile analogy of "tissue rejection" (Groom, 2025) to illustrate to an observed shift toward digital design roles that offer clear job titles, salaries, and career paths but limit opportunity for originality and creativity. Digital transformation and associated “standards” supports inclusive policy delivery, but creative thinking in policy development is crucial amid global uncertainty. Designers in policy settings are taking risks to expand the field yet without the conditions to flourish they will leave and their confidence in the power of creativity for public design will also diminish. They deserve protection, celebration, and meaningful recognition. Five ‘design experiments’ are presented as case studies and critiqued as a mode of inquiry to identify the conditions to a) support a culture of experimentation and b) develop skills and awareness of the value of generative design methods to support recognition of the field of design and designers to impact change in how we do policy in the context of regulation.