PHX Design Week: Designing the Culture You Want to Experience

Designing the Culture You Want to Experience

Friday, October 23 | 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Phoenix Design Week 2026

What are you waiting for someone else to create?

A gathering? A festival? A third space? A platform? A performance? An institution?

Designing the Culture You Want to Experience is an interactive cultural design workshop for artists, designers, producers, entrepreneurs, and community builders ready to move from “I wish this existed” to “I can start building this.”

Led by cultural producer Muse Johnson and presented by We Produce Culture, this two-hour workshop explores cultural production as a form of design. Using the Story - Space - Systems framework, participants will identify something missing from their creative ecosystem and begin designing a real-world response.

Inspired by Phoenix Design Week’s 2026 theme, ORBIT, participants will map the people, places, partners, audiences, and resources already surrounding their idea - while examining the difference between waiting for permission and building the relationships and infrastructure needed to move forward.

You’ll leave with a cultural blueprint, an Orbit Map, a clear pitch for your idea, and the smallest version you can begin testing now.

No business plan. No perfectly formed idea. No permission required. No production experience is required - just an idea, curiosity, or desire to build the culture and community you want to experience.

Bring an idea, a problem, an observation, or simply an “I wish somebody would…”

We’ll start there. 

BE THE CULTURE YOU’RE LOOKING FOR.

Ticket Price: Community Access - $0 Standard - $15 Culture Builder / Pay It Forward - $25 All participants receive the same experience regardless of ticket level. The tiered structure allows you to choose what you can contribute while helping underwrite access for other members of the creative community.